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COMPUTER VISION · HARDWARE PROTOTYPING · PRODUCT DESIGN
Embodied Sound Making
anchorOverview
OVERVIEW
If a radio has always been something you hold to listen, what happens when your hands become the affordance?
The project transforms an emergency radio from a device of passive broadcast to embodied sound-making. Instead of receiving music from the world, it allows you to create music.
PROCESS
anchorProblem
What I did?
I started by breaking open an old radio and connecting the existing speaker to an ESP32. I introduced computer vision through p5.js that tracks my hand movements through a hidden camera and varies the frequency and pitch of sound.
THE RESULT
How does it work?
Stand in front of the radio and hold your hand in view. When your hand is closed into a fist, the radio is silent. As you slowly open your hand, sound begins to emerge. The more gradually and intentionally you open or close your hand, the more stable the tone becomes. Moving your hand through space changes pitch and texture. Abrupt movement destabilizes the sound. Stillness or a closed fist returns it to silence.
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