After decades in which the keyboard and mouse have been the main user input devices in computer science, the use of (multi) touch screens is now becoming more and more ubiquitous. This is a revolutionary development, because touching a graphical user interface directly is a far more immersive activity than using the traditional indirect controller devices. Touch interaction is of particular use with tasks that require skill and a close connection between human and computer, such as creating music.

NiftySynth : “a preview of (multi) touch synthesizers to come?”

To satisfy both our wish to create a multi touch application and a music synthesizer application at the same time, we have created an interactive multitouch audio experience application built in Actionscript 3 / Flash. Using the TUIO multitouch and SiON synthesizer libraries we have been able to develop a portable multitouch application that can be controlled using a professional multitouch surface such as the surface in the Intertain lab at the VU in Amsterdam, but also with a homemade multitouch surface such as the one we have created ourselves (see the photos below). Though the application is built for TUIO multitouch data, it also has singletouch mouse support so it’ll work with a normal mouse as well, so be sure to try out the NiftySynth application. For a demonstration on the Intertain multitouch surface please watch the videos!

Downloads

• NiftySynth.swf – Online Demo (try it out, it also supports singletouch mouse!)
• NiftySynth.air – AIR installer file
• NiftySynth-readme.txt – Readme usage instructions
• NiftySynth-Documentation.pdf – Project Documentation
• NiftySynth-source.zip – NiftySynth application sourcecode package

Support Applications

• Community Core Vision (generate TUIO messages from a DIY webcam setup)
• Tongseng (generate TUIO messages from Apple MacbookPro touchpad)
• udp-flashlc-bridge (to transfer TUIO data to Flash)

Media

NiftySynth featured in AdValvas 22 apr 2010