Music from MotionA Motion-Sensing MIDI Controller as a Musical Instrument

Traditional musical instruments assume a high degree of mental and physical interaction, which results in the exclusion of some groups. One such group is children with severe impairments. Music is important for the development of the individuals in this group, but also physical exercise. This thesis describes the design process of a motion-sensing MIDI controller, which is an attempt to combine music and physical exercise through the design of a new musical instrument. The prototype controller is based on an Arduino microcontroller board, a motion sensor and a Bluetooth module, and is powered by a nine-volt battery. It outputs MIDI messages automatically at regular intervals. The data is received wirelessly by a computer, whichgenerates sound based on the messages. A pilot evaluation which had a small group of test subjects play two short melodies was performed to evaluate the efficiency of the prototype. The results show that the prototype could be used to relatively quickly play through theshortest of the two melodies, while the other melody was completed relatively slowly. It is concluded that the prototype can potentiallybe used to efficiently play a shorter musical composition, but may struggle with longer ones. Future work could include conducting a larger evaluation, letting the user control when the notes are played and facilitating the configuration of user settings