Music-Making Gloves

Musician Imogen Heap is trying to put an electric glove that produces sounds into production. Heap is trying to raise about $350,000 through a Kickstarter campaign to develop and produce a limited amount of open-source Mi.Mu gloves.

Each Mi.Mu glove has built in sensors that track the hands movements. Position, direction and velocity of the hand, the degree of the bend of the fingers and the space between the fingers are all factors determining what sounds will be produced. In addition, the gloves also understand hand postures such as a finger-point, open palm or closed fist.

The data is sent wirelessly to electronic music equipment, allowing musicians to create music by moving their hands rather than playing a traditional instrument or pressing buttons. Heap said, "It's essentially a remote control and anything that you could potentially do with your hands, you could do with your gloves." These gloves are being developed for musicians, but since they're open-source, they could be hacked for a number of uses.