British pop musician Imogen Heap has been working on her Ableton-controlling gloves since 2011 – building a system of advanced gestures and position detection that allow her to affect any number of elements in a performance using only movements of her hands. The Mi.Mu project has now made the transition towards a final consumer-ready state by moving onto Kickstarter to secure the final funding needed to bring the gloves to the masses.
“Imagine, for example, that instead of turning up a fader in order to bring in a sound or add reverb, you could be raising your arms to achieve the same effect. Or to move a sound around the room, you could simply point where you want it to be”
As outlined on the Kickstarter page, the gloves are designed to track all kinds hand-states, including:
- The orientation of your hand
- The “flex” of your fingers
- Your current hand posture (e.g. fist, open hand, one finger point)
- The direction (up, down, left, right, forwards, backwards) of your hand
- Sharp movements such as drum hits
In terms of actually getting a hold of a Mi.Mu glove by supporting the Kickstarter, it’s very much a premium product – £1,200 ($2,017) for a single glove or £2,400 ($4,033) for a pair of them. There’s also a single glove DIY kit available at a slightly-less-costly £750 ($1,260), which comes with textiles, electronics and tutorials – but you’ll need to have some soldering skills to put the kit together. Check out the MiMu Kickstarter project here.
