Irish Dancing Shoes with MIDI Interface.
Hack Details: The idea is to add pressure sensors to the soles of Irish dancing hard shoes and then send the data back wirelessly so it appears as a standard MIDI device. Allowing the tap shoes to perform as an instrument of sorts, the sound of which can be controlled in software.
What you need to make it happen?: We are gathering the hardware at the moment (we have a few Force Resistive Sensors and the like), but we’ll need to see what works best on the day. We got a professional Irish dancer to test it out. Someone with experience with MIDI interfaces could be handy, but many hands make light work so anyone who likes electronics, programming or just has good ideas would be very welcome on the team.
Your name: David McKeown, Mick Donegan.
Twitter/website:@dj_mckeown Mick Donegan
hey would be very interested in getting involved in this, have a very similar project planned for the summer for an art space and would love to learn and share what i can. i wouldn’t have much programming or electronic knowledge but i’m a sound engineer and musician so i could offer help with once you have it in midi data converting it to instruments. have a fair few idea’s in relation to the musical side of it, you can contact me on aidennorris2@gmail.com . thanks
Great Aiden, sounds like you got skills we need. Are you coming on Saturday?
David
yep would definitely pop along on saturday to get involved in the project. Could you send me a mail, just want to check a few thing and run a few idea’s by ya.
Hi I am very curious to know how your midi shoes turned out? looking into getting a or making a pair any advice?
Best regards: Mattias
They turned out very well in the end. This is the video from the demo on the day (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFVNooq6YbY) and eventually I made a wireless version which worked quite reliably for Dublin Maker 2013 (Video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k82Ck2v4CRI)