reacTable – a Music Surface!

You visit a music store and sit in front of table with some objects already placed. You place your finger between the objects and you get a musical note. You can move objects with your fingers and you have become a composer of your own tune!! This could be future. Like Microsoft Surface, one can experience multi user and multi touch features in gadgets like the above.

Sergi Jordà, Martin Kaltenbrunner, Günter Geiger and Marcos Alonso of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain have thought of some electro-acoustic music instrument that could be intelligent. Their work at the Music Technology Group at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra resulted in ‘reacTable’.

The reacTable is a round translucent table with multi-touch surface. Specially designed objects called tangibles may be placed on the surface. A camera beneath the surface analyzes the tangibles and finger position and orientation continuously. The tangibles work as components of modular synthesizer. The players can move the tangibles and these movements control the parameters of the synthesizer. A projector below the surface creates interesting feedback on the screen.

Diffeent types of tangibles represent different modules of analog sythesizers like Audio frequency VCOs, LFOs, VCFs, sequencers and some tangibles are designed to work as periodic trigger or to manipulate a VCO.

The table works as a display. When a tangible is placed on the reactable, various waveforms,symbols, circles, grids and lines ines appear on the surface. By using your fingers, you can control different modules and can see the changing waveforms as well as music.

A bright spot at the center of the reacTable indicates the output. For example when you can place a VCO tangible on the reacTable, a circle around the tangle appears A waveform also appears between the tangible and center of the table. You can control the amplitude of the waveform with your finger by manipulating the circle around the tangible. Frequency can be changed by rotating the tangible. One can put a filter between VCO and the outut or may place a LFO near VCO to modulate VFO.

The future reactable may be able to allow several collaborative local and/or remote users. The interface is expected to be intuitive, simple, user friendly and without manuals and instructions. There will be multiple versions where children can learn and master to the systems for the musicians to use in concerts. Unlike Microsoft Surface, this reacTable is specific application for music enthusiasts.