An electronic musician’s brilliant wearable hack uses eight Nintendo Wii controllers to create and manipulate sound in real time
By Andrew E. Rosenblum Posted 02.25.2008 at 4:45 pm 13 Comments

W_space: the fully wearable Wiimote audio controller Courtesy Tom Tlalim
View Photo Gallery

Soon after the Nintendo Wii’s release, hackers immediately began uncovering ways to use its unique motion-sensing controller to interface with other things—PCs, musical instruments, you name it. But Tom Tlalim, an Israeli-born composer who now lives in the Netherlands, may have outdone them all: His full-body, eight-piece “suit” of Wiimotes interfaces fully with custom software to turn his entire body into an electronic instrument that responds to his every motion. In his suit, Tlalim doesn’t play songs. He dances them.

Related Articles

Wii Broke It
Next Steps for Nintendo's Wii
WiiTunes—Play Your iTunes Library From the Living Room

Tags

Entertainment & Gaming, andrew rosenblum, hacks, mods, music, nintendo, theremin, Video, wii, W_Space
“W_space,” as his suit has been christened, uses up to eight Wiimotes attached to the wearer’s arms and legs to form what is effectively a DIY motion-capture suit. The accelerometers on the Wii send tilt and acceleration readings to an open-source music synthesis software package called SuperCollider, for which Tlalim wrote a custom module that translates the data from W_space’s Wiimotes and allows them to manipulate and create sounds of various timbres in real time.

For Tlalim, the Wiimotes mean that he no longer needs to be hunched in front of a computer screen when he plays.

W_space: On the Wall: The Wiimotes and Nunchuk attachments fit into elastic sleeves.  Courtesy Tom Tlalim

"They're allowing me to express myself, as a computer musician, more with my body, rather than the tips of my fingers," says Tlalim, who also plays jazz guitar. "I've always been interested in developing my own ‘gestural’ devices to control computers – as a way to go back to the spontaneous act of picking up a guitar."

The development process began a few months before the Wii’s November 2006 release. Tlalim was researching 3-dimensional rotation interfaces for audio software at Amsterdam's Steim Institute at the time, and when the Wii came out, Tlalim realized that modding the mass-produced remote would be a lot cheaper than building his own device from scratch. When his homemade Theremin broke right before a prestigious gig at the Dutch Electronic Art Festival in April 2007, Tlalim decided to put his idea to the test. On the train on the way to his performance, he wrote the code for SuperCollider that allowed a single Wiimote to mimic the effects of the Theremin.

"I was pretty much coding it while we were sound-checking and just before we went onstage," he says. "When we went onstage, it was the first time I got to try this instrument -- and I can tell you that it was mind-boggling, for the audience and for me, to discover the world of sound that can come out of gesture." He has performed several times since with the W_space, which has now grown to include as many as eight Wiimotes at a time.

Unlike the many gimmicky Wiimote mods that have surfaced, using the remote to make sounds creates genuinely new options for any musical form that encourages eclectic blending, from hip-hop and dance music to jazz and experimental composition. Dancers suddenly have the potential to be musicians in a way that wasn't before possible.

At a September 2007 conference about Wii-controlled music at the Steim Institute, Tlalim and other electronic composers showed off their mods, as did the Dutch "WiiJ" Tim Groeneboom (aka WiiJ Timski), who uses the Wiimote to control the mixes as he roves through dance clubs.

Tlalim is currently collaborating on a W_space project with dancer Doron Hirsch and director Paola Tognazzi. The goal? Freeing electronic music performers from the keyboard and mouse, once and for all.

See Tlalim and W_space in action below. And for a closer look, see our photo gallery here.


Fore more information, see tomtlalim.tk

13 Comments

Link to this comment
svseigel

from APO, AE

03/14/08 at 4:04 pm

I think that Tlalim is visionary to use Wiimotes this way. I am either too old to appreciate his music or the reproduction was weak, or he lacks much innate musicality. I'm headning to iTunes Store to see what he sounds like at a higher bandwidth. As an old EE, I would probably have a variety of mods, and reserve wiimote 8 for moving through them. For example, one might include a distortion guitar, sax and drums, while another could include a strings, woodwinds and brass ensemble. By using more raw noise (this sounds like sampling with the wiimote modifying the pitch and volume) I think he sacrifices true musicality in a misguided attempt to go avante-garde. Another alternative is to sample instruments and then mod from there--but not wind, jet airplanes or audio feedback.

Link to this comment
Nathan171
05/07/08 at 7:54 pm

It's a great idea, but the music was weird and I couldn't see much of a relation between the screeching and his movement. I'd like to see a recognizable song played using the suit. Play Free Bird, and then I'll be impressed :)

Link to this comment
max9 (not verified)
07/16/08 at 1:25 pm

I think that Tlalim is visionary to use Wiimotes this way. I am either too old to appreciate his music or the reproduction was weak, or he lacks much innate musicality. I'm headning to iTunes Store to see what he sounds like at a higher bandwidth. As an old EE, I would probably have a variety of mods, and reserve wiimote 8 for moving through them.

http://www.arabstart.com

Link to this comment
akudara
01/18/09 at 3:57 pm

That is siccccc! Tlalim should form a contract with Nintendo and sell it to the public. I would buy one.

Link to this comment
rantwithareason
01/29/09 at 3:19 pm

i think T Tlalin is a FAKE

Link to this comment
derlange
02/22/09 at 1:20 pm

Cute idea but really.... it sounds like crap. theres no future for this

Link to this comment
mazikaty
05/19/09 at 7:56 pm

العاب بنات |
برامج 2009 |
العاب فلاش |
برامج |
العاب كمبيوتر |
افلام |
منتدي |
كليبات |
بنت |
برامج جوال |
ثيمات |
بلوتوث |
نغمات |
العاب جوال |
رسائل جوال |
حواء |
غذاء |
صحة  |
موضة |
دش |
سات لايت |
ريسيفر |
شفرات جديده |
شفرات ريسيفر |
كرت دش |
برامج |
مركز تحميل |
دليل مواقع |
منتديات |
قصص |
طبخ وصفات طعام |
مسلسلات |
مسلسلات عربية |
مسلسلات تركية |
مسلسلات تركيا |
مسلسلات مدبلجة |
تحميل افلام
افلام اجنبية
برامج تليفزيون
مسرحيات عربية
فوتوشوب
برامج دينية
افلام مشاهير
افلام مغربية
كليبات
مسلسلات أنيمي
مسلسلات كرتون
مسلسلات اطفال
مسلسلات اجنبية
سينيما و تليفزيون
فيديو كليب
افلام عربية |
برامج |
صور |
افلام |

برامج خدمية |
برامج
مزح و مقالب |

برامج فوتوشوب |
الاسود العرب | منتديات
الاسود العرب| منتديات حواء |
العاب كمبيوتر |
برامج ماسنجر |
ماسنجر |
ماسنجر |
تحميل العاب كمبيوتر

Link to this comment
aleyna
08/02/09 at 5:24 pm

But Tom Tlalim, an Israeli-born composer who now lives in the Netherlands, may have outdone them all http://www.travestisohbet.net

Link to this comment
romaniamac1
11/04/09 at 9:06 am

Aleyna is absolutely right and i have to agree with it.

www.emailextractor14.com

Link to this comment
travesti
11/28/09 at 10:43 am

www.travestiblog.com

Link to this comment
istikrar
01/05/10 at 10:54 am

your system is really nice and useful information there I wish to congratulate and thank you success
wwwitonerarsivi.com

Link to this comment
mimo2006
10/20/10 at 3:06 am

العاب دورا
العاب دورا
العاب دورا
العاب دورا
العاب دورا
العاب دورا
العاب دورا
العابدورا
العاب دورا و موزو
العاب دورا الجديدة 2011
العاب دورا تلبيس
العاب دورا طبخ
العاب دورا جديدة
العاب دورا 2010
العاب دورا وموزو
العاب طبخ
العاب طبخ
العاب طبخ
العاب طبخ
العاب طبخ
العاب طبخ
العاب طبخ
العاب طبخ
العاب طبخ
العاب طبخ
العاب طبخ

Link to this comment
data12
11/20/10 at 8:26 am

Thank u so much

العاب
al3ab
العاب فلاش
العاب اطفال
العاب بنات
العاب سيارات
al3ab cars
العاب اكشن
العاب مكياج ميك اب
العاب افلام كرتون
العاب نكلودين
العاب قتالية
العاب الطبخ
العا ب طبخ
العاب تلبيس
العاب رياضية
العاب تلوين
العاب قص شعر
العاب متنوعة
العاب ذكاء
العاب دراجات
العاب باربي
al3ab banat
games
العاب جديدة
العاب لوفي
العاب لوفي مطاطي
العاب سيارات فقط
العاب سيارات اون لاين

Popular Tags

Regular Features


138 years of Popular Science at your fingertips.

Innovation Challenges

Make your ideas part of the revolution
Learn morePowered by Innocentive



Popular Science+ For iPad

Each issue has been completely reimagined for your iPad. See our amazing new vision for magazines that goes far beyond the printed page



Download Our App

Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone or Android phone with full articles, images and offline viewing



Follow Us On Twitter

Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed


February 2012: The Future of Fun

Science is reinventing play, from extreme sports to gamification to ridiculous roller coasters to the playgrounds of tomorrow, and this issue is chock full of fun. Also, on a less fun note: Did global warming destroy my hometown?


circ-top-header.gif
circ-cover.gif
bmxmag-ps