Make Music with the Nod of Your Head

Usually when you nod your head along with music, it’s a passive act. Andrew Lee’s latest project, however, changes this up a bit by converting headbanging into actual metronome-like beats.

The aptly named “Nod Bang” uses a pair of modified headphones with an accelerometer attached to detect Lee’s head movements, while a set of four arcade buttons enable him to select various tracks and even add more sounds to the mix.

An Arduino board senses the accelerometer and button input, then outputs this to a computer via MIDI in order to play the needed samples.

Each nod triggers a metronome sound and a white light in the buttons. Each button has a different color and sound. Nodding while pressing a button plays back a sound. Multiple sounds can be activated at the same time. Actively pressing buttons can create patterns. Buttons can also map to preprogrammed sequences rather than triggering every step. Buttons mute and unmute their sound sequence.

The Nod Bang took about two months to go from a napkin sketch to the polished device seen in the video here, and is meant for display at the NYU ITP 2017 Winter Show.

[h/t: New Atlas]