A new Kickstarter project called Kurv has developed a pioneering new approach to air guitar and other instruments.
The Kurv consists of two parts – a button board where you press chords and notes, and a pick. The pick contains a sensor that recognises strumming movements, just like playing on a normal guitar.
It has been designed as a ‘stringless’ digital guitar that allows anyone to learn and play songs using touch, motion and gestures. The device combines advanced music synthesis software, sensor technologies and machine learning. You can see it in action here.
Dr. Mick Grierson, co-founder of Kurv and Reader at Goldsmiths Department of Computing commented: “For the first time, we can run advanced music synthesis engines on your mobile phone. When you combine this power with wearable technologies and machine learning, you can develop new musical instruments that were considered science fiction only a few years ago.”
Co-designer of the Kurv, Tania Fauvel, said: “We started by looking at large surveys of people’s hands. Your fingers can comfortably touch eight distinct places on your palm. In western music, there are eight notes in an octave, eight notes in a scale and eight chords in a key.”
John Kennedy, Co-Founder of Kurv and former President of Universal Music International, added: “Many people who listen to music aspire not just to be passive listeners, but would like to be playing as well. Many people buy a guitar and work on it for four weeks and then it sits in the corner as a piece of furniture. We hope the Kurv can change that.”
For those who would like to create new musical instruments using the Kurv, a software development kit is also being released.
