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Aerozendrum?

Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2017 2:02 pm
by BuenasNoStix
I like my new Aerodrums, but real drummers use way too much energy to play. With my Zendrum (zendrum.com), I have eight sticks (the pinky doesn't have much use), plus sometimes the palms and heels of my hands. I play rolls with the same finger trills as keyboard. It's just a lot less movement than drumming--no feet necessary--while being able to play many more sounds simultaneously, like percussion with one hand while playing the jazz kit with the other. As a non-drummer, Aerodrums are a novelty for me and maybe someday I'll sit down at a physical drum kit and surprise my friends.

But I'd really like to lose the sticks and play Aerodrums like Zendrum, or at least play a much more compact kit with my hands and maybe do rolls with thumb and pinky by twisting the wrist back and forth. Is that practical with the current software and level of visual detection? Is there some particular brand of reflective tape to make this work? I've thought of wrapping thimbles in the tape and putting one on my thumb and at least one other finger. The balls on the sticks are so big, though. Will the aerodrums work using a reflective surface not much bigger than a fingertip?

Re: Aerozendrum?

Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 11:08 pm
by slavedave
Watching this thread because I also own and play a Zendrum and have thought about the extended application of aerodrum technology into hand drumming. I imagine that you would need a very high resolution from the camera sensor to be able to detect the subtleties of hand drumming (esp the finger movements involved in using a Zendrum which are often only millimetres in distance). Additionally, I couldn't see a musician being able to move around too much if handrumming with aerodrums which effectively negates one of the cool features of the Zendrum - groovability on stage. It's great to be able to "get into the groove" as you play and move around a little (or a lot!) with the ZD.

Re: Aerozendrum?

Posted: Wed May 10, 2017 9:45 pm
by Richard
We experimented with this a long time ago, including covering thimbles in reflective tape. At the time we weren't tracking feet so we could afford to be a lot closer to the camera. There was no issue with tracking the thimbles. The main issue with using the current version of Aerodrums is that it won't track more than two markers. Aerodrums also expects the markers to be spherical and normally fully visible to the camera so there could be occlusion issues if you try to have two markers on one hand. I believe the idea of having multiple markers per hand has the potential to work well but the software would need to modified for best results.

Re: Aerozendrum?

Posted: Wed May 10, 2017 10:21 pm
by BuenasNoStix
ETA?

Re: Aerozendrum?

Posted: Thu May 11, 2017 1:18 am
by Richard
None right now I'm afraid as it would require quite a bit of time and research to investigate how to solve the multi-marker tracking and labelling problem. Even doing a good job with two markers is surprisingly challenging, particularly when the markers occlude each other from the camera's point of view.