reactable: basic demo #1

reactable: basic demo #2

Bjork-Hyperballad @ Glastonbury,2007

“The reactable is a collaborative electronic music instrument with a tabletop tangible multi-touch interface. It was developed by a team working in the Music Technology Group within the Audiovisual Institute at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona Spain.

The reactable intends to be:

• collaborative: several performers (locally or remotely)
• intuitive: zero manual, zero instructions
• sonically challenging and interesting
• learnable and masterable (even for children)
• suitable for novices (installations) and advanced electronic musicians (concerts)

The reactable hardware is based on a translucent, round multi-touch surface. A
camera situated beneath the table, continuously analyzes the surface, tracking the
player’s finger tips and the nature, position and orientation of physical objects that
are distributed on its surface. These objects represent the components of a classic
modular synthesizer, the players interact by moving these objects, changing their
distance, orientation and the relation to each other. These actions directly control
the topological structure and parameters of the sound synthesizer. A projector, also
from underneath the table, draws dynamic animations on its surface, providing a
visual feedback of the state, the activity and the main characteristics of the sounds
produced by the audio synthesizer.”