Reactable
Encyclopedia
Electronic musical instrument
An electronic musical instrument is a musical instrument that produces its sounds using electronics. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical audio signal that ultimately drives a loudspeaker....
with a tabletop Tangible User Interface
Tangible User Interface
A tangible user interface is a user interface in which a person interacts with digital information through the physical environment. The initial name was Graspable User Interface, which no longer is used....
that has been developed within the Music Technology Group at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
by Sergi Jordà
Sergi Jordà
Sergi Jordà is a Catalan innovator, installation artist, digital musician and Associate Professor at the Music Technology Group, Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. He is best known for directing the team that invented the Reactable....
, Marcos Alonso, Martin Kaltenbrunner and Günter Geiger.
In the end of 2010 a mobile version of the Reactable was released for iPad, giving many opportunities to musicians for multi-touch sequencing.
Basic operation
The Reactable is a round translucent table, used in a darkened room, and appears as a backlitBacklight
A backlight is a form of illumination used in liquid crystal displays . As LCDs do not produce light themselves , they need illumination to produce a visible image...
display. By placing blocks called tangibles on the table, and interfacing with the visual display via the tangibles or fingertips, a virtual
Virtual
The term virtual is a concept applied in many fields with somewhat differing connotations, and also, differing denotations.The term has been defined in philosophy as "that which is not real" but may display the salient qualities of the real....
modular synthesizer
Modular synthesizer
The modular synthesizer is a type of synthesizer consisting of separate specialized modules connected by wires to create a so-called patch. Every output generates a signal – an electric voltage of variable strength...
is operated, creating music or sound effects.
Tangibles
There are various types of tangibles representing different modules of an analog sythesizer. Audio frequency VCOVoltage-controlled oscillator
A voltage-controlled oscillator or VCO is an electronic oscillator designed to be controlled in oscillation frequency by a voltage input. The frequency of oscillation is varied by the applied DC voltage, while modulating signals may also be fed into the VCO to cause frequency modulation or phase...
s, LFOs, VCF
Voltage-controlled filter
A voltage-controlled filter is a filter whose operating characteristics can be controlled by means of a control voltage applied to one or more inputs...
s, and sequencer
Music sequencer
The music sequencer is a device or computer software to record, edit, play back the music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically :...
s are some of the commonly-used tangibles. There are also tangibles that affect other modules: one called radar is a periodic trigger, and another called tonalizer limits a VCO to the notes of a musical scale
Musical scale
In music, a scale is a sequence of musical notes in ascending and descending order. Most commonly, especially in the context of the common practice period, the notes of a scale will belong to a single key, thus providing material for or being used to conveniently represent part or all of a musical...
.
Using tangibles with the display
The table itself is the display. As a tangible is placed on the table, various animated symbols appear, such as waveforms, circles, circular grids, or sweeping lines. Some symbols merely show what the particular tangible is doing, others can be used by fingertip to control the respective module.Example of operation
If a VCO tangible is placed on the table, a VCO module is added to the virtual synthesizer. In the display, a waveform will appear between the tangible and the "output" (a bright spot at the center of the table), and a circle appears around the tangible which allows fingertip control of the amplitude of the waveform. Additionally, in this example the tangible can be rotated by hand to change the frequency.Placing a filter tangible between the VCO and the output causes the VCO's waveform to connect to the filter, and the filter waveform to connect to the output. If an LFO tangible is placed near the VCO, a waveform will then appear connecting those two, and the LFO will modulate the VCO.
Structure
The Reactable's main user interface consists of a translucent table. Underneath the table is a video cameraVideo camera
A video camera is a camera used for electronic motion picture acquisition, initially developed by the television industry but now common in other applications as well. The earliest video cameras were those of John Logie Baird, based on the electromechanical Nipkow disk and used by the BBC in...
, aimed at the underside of the table and inputing video to a personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
. There is also a video projector
Video projector
A video projector is an image projector that receives a video signal and projects the corresponding image on a projection screen using a lens system. All video projectors use a very bright light to project the image, and most modern ones can correct any curves, blurriness, and other...
under the table, also connected to the computer, projecting video onto the underside of the table top that can be seen from the upper side as well. There is an audio engine based on Pure Data
Pure Data
Pure Data is a visual programming language developed by Miller Puckette in the 1990s for creating interactive computer music and multimedia works. While Puckette is the main author of the program, Pd is an open source project with a large developer base working on new extensions to it. It is...
and SuperCollider
Supercollider
A Supercollider is a high energy particle accelerator. The term may refer to:* Superconducting Super Collider, planned 80 km project in Texas, canceled in 1993...
Placed onto the table are the tangibles that have fiducial
Fiduciary marker
A fiducial marker or fiducial is an object used in the field of view of an imaging system which appears in the image produced, for use as a point of reference or a measure...
s attached to their underside which are seen through the table by the camera. The fiducials are printed black and white images, consisting of circles and dots in varying patterns, optimized for use by reacTIVision. reacTIVision then uses the fiducials to understand the function of a particular tangible.
Most of the tangibles are flat, with one fiducial on the underside. Some other tangibles are cubes, with fiducials attached to several sides, allowing those tangibles to serve multiple functions.
Currently, there are two versions of the Reactable, Reactable Live! and the Reactable experience. Reactable Live is a smaller, more portable version designed for professional musicians, only 20 have been produced (currently priced at €9700). The Reactable experience is more like the original Reactable, and suited for installations in public spaces.
reacTIVision
The live video stream received from a digital video camera is processed by the open-source computer visionComputer vision
Computer vision is a field that includes methods for acquiring, processing, analysing, and understanding images and, in general, high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical or symbolic information, e.g., in the forms of decisions...
software called reacTIVision, originally developed by Martin Kaltenbrunner and Ross Bencina for the Reactable project. reacTIVision detects cartesian and rotational placement of fiducials on the table surface, then emits the specially designed Open Sound Control based network protocol called TUIO, which communicates to the actual synthesizer and visualization software that outputs to the video projector. reacTIVision is also capable of multi-touch fingertip tracking.
Presentations
Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica is an organization based in Linz, Austria, founded in 1979 around a festival for art, technology and society that was part of the International Bruckner Festival. Herbert W. Franke is one of its founders. It became its own festival and a yearly event in 1986. Its director until 1995...
, Sónar
Sónar
Sónar is an annual three-day music festival held in Barcelona, Spain. It is described officially as a festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art. Music is by far the main aspect of the festival....
, NIME and SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH is the name of the annual conference on computer graphics convened by the ACM SIGGRAPH organization. The first SIGGRAPH conference was in 1974. The conference is attended by tens of thousands of computer professionals...
. Over the years, the Reactable team has showcased more than 150 presentations and concerts in more than 30 countries around the world.
Icelandic songstress Björk
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir , known as Björk , is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her eclectic musical style has achieved popular acknowledgement and popularity within many musical genres, such as rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical and folk...
is perhaps the first musician outside of the select presentations and demonstrations to use a Reactable in live performance. Björk's 2007 world tour supporting her 2007 release Volta
Volta (album)
Volta is the seventh studio album by Icelandic musician Björk, released in May 2007. It was produced by Björk, Mark Bell, Timbaland and Danja. The music of Volta was a new style for Björk, focusing on similar sounding music combining African beats and other instruments with songs in tribute to Africa...
used the instrument in several songs including "Declare Independence
Declare Independence
"Declare Independence" is an industrial-nu metal song written and recorded by Icelandic singer Björk. The track was released as the third single from her sixth full-length studio album, Volta. The single was released on January 1, 2008...
"; Björk's live inaugural use of the instrument took place at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 27, 2007.
A Reactable is on display at the Museum of Science & Industry (Chicago) . Guests can play and interact with the instrument to create an infinite number of sounds.
Recently splitting into two models, the Reactable Experience is on display in many exhibitions. Some of these include: INTECH
INTECH
INTECH is an internationally renowned educational resource centre for science situated in Morn Hill, just outside the city of Winchester in the United Kingdom...
, Discovery World
Discovery World
Discovery World is a museum located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at 500 N. Harbor Drive. When the museum moved to Milwaukee's lakefront in 2006, it changed its name to Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin. It formerly was located at 815 N. James Lovell Street....
, Museum of Science and Industry
Museum of Science and Industry
MOSI may refer to:* MoSi — molybdenum silicide, an important material in the semiconductor industry* MOSI - Master Out Slave In, a signal on the Serial Peripheral Interface Bus* MOSI protocol, an extension of the basic MSI cache coherency protocol...
, Sub Mix Pro, and ZKM.
During the 2010 Winter Olympics
2010 Winter Olympics
The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, were a major international multi-sport event held from February 12–28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University...
in Vancouver, the Reactable was featured at the CODE
Cultural Olympiad Digital Edition
The Cultural Olympiad Digital Edition, or CODE, was a digital art showcase at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. The festival, which lasted from February 4 to 21, was the first of its kind at a major sporting event, showcasing the new digital media styles in art, music, and film.First...
festival. Throughout February, this event featured interactive media paired with sports and music.
In March 2010, a Reactable was installed at Discovery Place
Discovery Place
Discovery Place is a science and technology museum for visitors of all ages located in the Uptown area of Charlotte, North Carolina. Discovery Place brings science to life through hands-on interactive exhibits, thrilling activities and experiments, a larger-than-life IMAX Dome Theatre, and...
in Charlotte, North Carolina. as part of the 'Think it up' exhibition which opened to the public on May 1, 2010
From July 2nd 2010 until October 1st 2010 a Reactable Experience was on display in the Science Gallery
Science Gallery
The Science Gallery is a public science centre at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Opened in 2008 and housed in Trinity's Naughton Institute, it holds various exhibitions and lectures with a view to science outreach and art-science collaborations. Unlike most science centres, it has no permanent...
in Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, as part of their 'BioRhythm' exhibition.
There is Reactable at the Centre des sciences de Montréal in Montreal, Canada.
In 2011 the band Nero (band)
Nero (band)
Nero are an electronic music act from London, England consisting of Daniel Stephens and Joe Ray. Alana Watson provides vocals on many of the duo's songs, though she is not officially a band member. On 6 December 2010, Nero were announced as nominees for the BBC's Sound of 2011 poll.-History:Nero...
featured a reactable in the music video of their single "Promises".
From March 2011 a Reactable is on display in Copernicus Science Centre
Copernicus Science Centre
Copernicus Science Centre is a science museum standing on the bank of the Vistula River in Warsaw. It contains over 450 interactive exhibits that enable visitors to single-handedly carry out experiments and discover the laws of science for themselves...
, Warsaw, Poland. It is a part of "Re:Generation" exhibition and is available for use by visitors.