Theremin on Processing

Theremin on Processing in progress?

If you want Japanese, here is Japanese version.

Introduction

While thinking of what I can do with Processing, I stuck on, "Can I play Theremin with the camera built in the Mac?"

I'm afraid if someone has done already and there is :0

I found however it's too small to control and doesn't work well for music (can't make pitch staircase) so I decided to create my own one.

I thought up several implementations for that, but I had meager time and wanted to make with as much vanilla Processing as possible.

Thus my app will be kind of a mashup.

Development Details

From sound libraries

• minim (sound library for Processing)
• sound (in vanilla Processing)

I have chosen "sound" due to no need of more functionality.

From video libraries

• video (in vallina Processing)
• OpenCV
• BoofCV (CV library on Java)

I have chosen "BoofCV" because video has no tracking feature and OpenCV couldn't be smoothly installed into my Mac...


Well, this is the screen:

Artifacts

Here is the repository.
GitHub - Theremin on Processing

You can download the application from here:
GitHub - Theremin on Processing - release page

The resolution of the camera is now fit to FaceTime HD (1280x720) in my Mac. Sorry for now if your camera doesn't match...

The usage is written on the project page above.

I did check if I can play a melody :)

Conclusion

During the creation what I felt is this has problems in its accuracy for real performance. Infrared camera devices (e.g. Kinect, Leap Motion) are better for control but here I did without special devices.

This article and artifacts are work in progress after Boulez.

Playing Videos

To prove this Theremin on Processing can play music, I asked my friend, Neko Piano to play with it :)

Here are playing videos.

Checking its control and trying to sing a scale:

Singing "When You Wish Upon a Star":

Neko Piano played a Theremin-like instrument for the first time... so with some wrong pitches.
It's proven however this is a musical instrument! :)
For that matter I couldn't find any videos to play music with Theremin-like digital instrument, you're blindly concerning in technologies, are't you? :)