interFace
is a beat maker software that tracks facial expressions to generate loops and much more.
Under the hood, interFace consists of
FACEdrum
(drum machine),
GrannyFACE
(granular synthesis), and FACEorgan
(laptop mouth organ).
Tech Used:
I used openFrameworks which is an amazing OpenGL wrapper that lets you do pretty amazing stuff in a much shorter time while still giving you access to void main() :P
The basic face tracking algorithm was implemented by Kyle McDonald in ofxFaceTracker which I was able to modify to suit my needs. I used Maximillian to
make my life easier while implementing drum machines and granular synthesis. If I were to continue working on this project over the next year, I would definitely want to implement the audio stuff directly using STK.
Motivation:
This project started off inspired by two things; Ge's 'inside out' method of designing software and secondly, how something as simple as the Laptop Accordion can
be incredibly fun to play with and more importantly, watch someone else play with. My initial idea was create a Laptop Mouth Organ where a combination of the player blowing into the microphone, along with tilting the laptop
would create sounds, thus simulating a harmonica in sound and method of playing the instrument. On pitching this idea to Ge, he told me this reminded him of a Smule app called FaceTheMusic
that was scrapped. Ideas from this conversation along with my original plan came together to form interFace.
Design / Aesthetics:
For the first milestone, I got a couple compliments on how simple and smooth the interface looked. This wasn't entirely on purpose but I decided to keep that look anyway. I decided to create a Loop Creator section for the
program in the final week to include a music generation experience for the user like in a DAW.
Also not on purpose, my visuals looked quite similar to Disclosure's live set (see right). I could totally see interFace being used to control LFOs in certain sections
of their songs.
Ever wanted to create hip hop beats by simply bobbing your head to the beat?
How cool would it be if you could use your laptop to create melodies by blowing into it like a mouth organ?
Can you imagine a loop generator that also doubles as a performance art piece?
Screenshots:
