Notes on making music in AR and ANW

How people listen to music has evolved over the last half century from
vinyl to tape then CD and finally the MP3. Music making has also changed
as electronic musical instruments have enabled the dance music
revolution. The Roland 303 and 909 are examples of amazing new forms of
instruments. They're now available on the iPhone.
http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/roland-303-909-and-808-in-one-iphone-app-196770

There are already musical instruments that capture movement and turn it
into sound without contact with strings or blowing through a pipe. The
theremin, the instrument used by Portishead, allows a musician to wave
their hand around an antenna to create sounds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin

It's used in the extraordinary tune Mysterons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfxqQ5nWGdw

In the short term I think a simple application puts a musical keyboard
onto the smartphone screen and takes information from the accelerometers
would be a great gimmick app. Sony's popular Guitar Hero game could be
ported over to become an augmented reality game.

There are now devices that allow musicians to literally wave their hands
in the air and move their body to create music. It's usually the other
way round. Sensors track and recognise motion. These devices are very
large, expensive and still experimental.
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/physical-sequencer

The Cellon Virtual Keyboard can project a qwerty keyboard onto any
surface (http://www.virtual-laser-keyboard.com/) and could be adapted to
project an Articulated Naturality musical keyboard. As the phone becomes
an entertainment device through AN technology there will be many
applications where the power to project an input device onto any surface
will be a useful convenience.

What I envisage is extraordinary performance artists in the future who
combine musical creativity and dance to make music with motion. Musical
instruments may become things that only exist in the virtual space of
the Articulated Naturality Web. It requires exceptional precision and
accuracy to be able to replicate the subtle movements that a virtuoso
violinist uses with their bow but achieving this precision is simply a
matter of time. Technology is evolving apace and ever faster.