[sdiy] ... Simulating a Moog/virtual knobs

[Tim Parkhurst]

Hello All,

On virtual knobs & large displays:
Give this a few years. OLEDs (Organic Light Emitting Diode) are quickly
becoming practical, and they should soon enable very large, relatively cheap
color displays. I'll have to see if there's any info online, but Nissan has
a concept car with two large OLED displays that basically cover the interior
roof and can be set to display video (the picture I saw had a very nice
underwater tropical reef image). It was pretty spectacular. Each panel was
about 2 feet wide and three or four feet long. I'm not sure I want it in my
car, but this sort of thing with a touch screen interface would (IMHO) be
the ultimate virtual synth.

On the laser based PDA interface:
More info:
http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=6394
This is a device that attaches to your PDA and scans a flat surface with a
diode laser. It looks for interference patterns and can figure out which key
you're pressing on the projected keyboard. This might be a very cool way to
implement a virtual panel, but I think we're a few years away from this
technology 'trickling down' to the DIY level.

Anyway, just my $0.02

Happy Hacking,

Tim (a penny for my thoughts) Servo

*********************************************************************

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Julian Bunn [mailto:Julian.Bunn at caltech.edu]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2004 9:42 AM
> Subject: RE: [sdiy] ... Simulating a Moog
> 
> Hi again Richard,
> 
> On the topic of virtual knobs:
>
> > Okay, but you still have the weight and portability issue.
> > It's interesting
> > to wonder about some kind of virtual knob interface that uses
> > optical back
> > scattering from a projector to guess where your hand is in
> > relation to a
> > virtual knob or patch panel.
> 
> So there are these whiteboard attachments that digitise what you
> draw on the board so you can keep a record of it. Perhaps something
> like that could be modified so that you could simply take a
> rolled up plastic sheet printed with your huge control panel, pin it up
> to the wall at the location, attach the digitiser, hook to your
> laptop, align the system and then have it respond in real time to
> your stabs, strokes and twiddles of the printed knobs and controls
> on the printout?
> 
> I dunno ... maybe it's science fiction.
> 
> >
> > There's a laser based system that works for PDAs that's due
> > Real Soon Now
> > that works like this.
> 
> Any details on that?
> 
> >
> > The T221 sounds great, but where can you get them for $3k?
> > Cheapest price I
> > found online was more than twice that.
> 
> You're right: I was looking at a price quoted at
> http://www.ibuyernet.com/search~str~Monitors+LCD+22in~compare_price.htm
> which turns out to be a fictitious entry :-)
> 
> > >LOL. This is another of those statements that initially
> > sounds absurd,
> > >but then the more you think about it, the more you wonder if
> > it really
> > >is so daft :-)
> >
> > No, it's absurd. Trust me on this. :-)
> 
> OK I trust you ...
> 
> >
> > A lot of hifi is absurd. E.g. you could improve the quality of CD
> > DAC/Transport separates out of all recognition just by adding
> > a reference
> > clock to eliminate jitter. But instead manufacturers spend a
> > lot of money
> > on stupid 'vibration eliminating feet' and other gimmicks that have a
> > marginal (at best) effect on the sound. Or put supposedly audiophile
> > components into designs that are barely decent to start with.
> >
> > Richard
> >
> >
> 
> Julian
> 
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