Instruments of Things' SOMI-1 Bluetooth Wearables Turn Your Movements Into Music
Built around Movesense pucks, the SOMI-1 tries to make it as easy as possible to make music by moving your body.
German music-tech specialist Instruments of Things has launched a campaign to produce a wearable designed to turn movement into sound: the SOMI-1 motion sensor.
"SOMI-1 is a highly precise sensor technology that measures movement and transforms it into sound in real-time," claims Instruments of Things' Niko Schönig of his company's latest creation. "The Bluetooth sensors can be worn as wearables on the wrists and ankles, turning the user into an instrument."
The SOMI-1 is a family of devices, starting with one or more lightweight Bluetooth-connected motion sensors designed and built by Movesense. Up to six of these communicate with a central hub built from scratch by Instruments of Things and which translates the motion into MIDI messages — or sends them to a smartphone app, for those who prefer to make music on-the-go.
"Each SOMI-1 sensor provides eight different motion parameters that can be used independently to control or trigger sound," Schönig explains. "The sound can either be generated via the SOMI-1 smartphone app, which offers several different sound presets, or by any instrument or music software that is compatible with MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) – for example Ableton Live."
"The motion data of the SOMI-1 sensors is received wirelessly via Bluetooth 5 by the SOMI-1 hub, that connects to your sound source via USB or TRS-MIDI. Up to six sensors can be used simultaneously with a single SOMI-1 hub to create incredible soundscapes and allow multiple artists to operate together."
According to Schönig, the hub offers a latency below 10ms, a precision of around 0.01 degrees across all axes, and a 164-foot maximum range to each of the Movesense-built wearable sensors which offer a claimed 20-hour run time per charge.
The SOMI-1 isn't Instruments of Things' first crowdfunding campaign: The company previously hit Kickstarter for a wireless Eurorack motion sensor interface dubbed 2.4SINK, and while it missed its original shipping deadline — as almost every crowdfunding campaign does — it successfully delivered all hardware to backers by the end of February last year.
The SOMI-1 is now funding on Kickstarter now at €379 (around $445) for early bird backers, a claimed 43% discount on the eventual retail price. Hardware is expected to ship in August next year, by which time the company promises the currently basic smartphone app will have been considerably expanded.
This article has been updated to clarify the sensors' battery life.