Filed under: Found Footage, iPad
Found footage: iPad app turns sheet music pages with the tap of a toe
Ever since the iPad hit the market, my visits to the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Opera Colorado, and the Central City Opera have been frustrating. Why? I think about my iPad, and I see a great way to display sheet music. On stage, however, I see the same old paper sheet music that's been prevalent for hundreds of years.
Why not go digital, then? There's only one problem -- a musician would still need to use his or her hand to swipe at the sheet music and turn a page.
A company called Airturn has developed the BT-105, a Bluetooth foot switch for turning pages on the iPad forward and backward using a tap of a foot. As Hugh Sung explains in the video above, it allows instrumentalists who are busy with both hands to use a toe to tap one of the two switches to move through the score easily.
I'm not sure what Airturn is going to do with percussionists and pianists, who are often busy with both hands and at least one foot. Perhaps the next generation device will listen to the music and anticipate when to turn the page.
The BT-105 is still in the prototype stage, but should be available later this year.
[via Wired]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
macfan406 said 5:26PM on 7-23-2010
They could use a different foot or something like that. They don't use their feet 100% of the time. How do i know this? I'm a pianist myself..
I'm also a conductor, and the iPad for sheet music appealed to me especially when apps came out that let you annotate the score. Now I need something to turn the page with so I can keep waving my stick. When are these if at all coming to sale and how much?. I don't even need my bag anymore.. Just my batons, this foot pedal, and my iPad. This is really game changing for music.
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macserv said 11:54PM on 7-24-2010
I will buy this too, the second it's available. It'll just take some twiddling to figure out the best pedal location... as a drummer, I *do* use my feet most of the time :D
nsk said 5:27PM on 7-23-2010
Admittedly I haven't tried any of them, but I thought the major sheet-music iPad apps automatically turn pages based on their microphones judging that the instrumentalist had reached the bottom of the page. Is this not the case? Maybe the technology just isn't there yet.
This bluetooth pedal seems a bit complicated.
If I were playing in an ensemble, I'd want two iPads so I could have a two-page view of where the music is going. But for pulling tunes out the real book for jazz combos, it's perfect.
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deviladv said 7:26PM on 7-23-2010
I have a simpler solution here, for conductors... a baton with bluetooth and a small switch. Go ahead, use my idea in a new product.
A pedal isn't complicated at all. I played in a high school concert band, and a pedal is perfect. My hands are busy with my instrument and I'm tapping my foot in my shoe all the time (okay so I wasn't advanced, this was high school band after all!). It doesn't take much to think about tapping a pedal at the right moment, especially when you are already keeping a beat in your head or somewhere else.
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Pat said 5:57PM on 7-23-2010
Dang! I had this idea when the iPad first came out but didn't follow through with it. Granted, I didn't have the whole Bluetooth thing worked out in my mind, but still.... ;-)
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David said 6:20PM on 7-23-2010
Bluetooth may not be reliable enough for this, at least not when actually playing in a live concert where failure could disrupt or at least rattle the musician and where others in the audience may cause interference with their own wireless devices.
On the other hand, a peddle wired through the dock connector or headphone jack would cause its own problems by getting in the way.
Perhaps the best solution is a proprietary wireless solution using something more robust than Bluetooth. Robustness should be easy when there's virtually no bandwidth requirement. A carrier pulse would be enough, maybe with a little bit of Morse-like coding to avoid accidental triggering by interference.
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robert said 6:29PM on 7-23-2010
Wow! Cool to see what people are doing with this device. I am seeing more potential every day. The iPad has really changed my everyday reading habits for books and magazines.
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SSteve said 7:45PM on 7-23-2010
Pianists, nothing! What about the poor pedal steel players? They're using both hands, both feet, AND their knees.
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MDP said 9:04PM on 7-23-2010
Airturn has been making these bluetooth page turning systems for years for PCs, MAC's etc. This is just the addition of the iPAD version. They work great! You can use the with PDF's or better yet, with software called MusicReader. I use it all the time professionally. A great product!
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Bitter Phil said 9:43PM on 7-23-2010
Bluetooth seems silly to me. 1) it require power either via a plug or a limited life battery, 2) the hardware cost of the radio, 3) the potential wireless interference when you have dozens of them within a 30 foot space.
Why not just use the accelerometer to respond to tap codes, or at least a special music stand with a dock connector, a wired switch/pedal, and maybe a power source/extra battery.
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gristan said 11:17PM on 7-23-2010
WHY DON'T YOU SAY SOMETHING " NICE " OR " CONSTRUCTIVE ", BEFORE UTTERING NEGATIVE TO DRAG THE PEOPLE DOWN????????????????
Bully said 11:38AM on 7-24-2010
You obviously have ZERO understanding the Bluetooth technology because all three points you make are problems that Bluetooth solved, many years ago.
BTW: how does TUAW look on your Pentium II with 13" CRT monitor? Because it seems like that's the technology age you're living in still.
Kwjayhawk said 10:43PM on 7-23-2010
I have been scanning music to pdf to try something like this in ibook for future use with an ipad. I'm excited to see this kind of technology for music take off!
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gristan said 11:20PM on 7-23-2010
WHY DON'T YOU SAY SOMETHING " NICE " OR " CONSTRUCTIVE ", BEFORE UTTERING NEGATIVE TO DRAG THE PEOPLE DOWN????????????????
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lens42 said 2:26AM on 7-24-2010
This is cute, but the RIGHT way to do this would be to have the iPad listen to the piece via a mic and turn the pages appropriately. You could set the "lead" time in the software to suit your pace. That would make this require NO hardware. Even if you have to turn back and forth, that should be settable. I see no reason for a hardware switch at all.
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Rknowlt said 2:29AM on 7-24-2010
Does regular paper turn itself with your foot? Nope. So why can't the musician just flick with one hand quickly like they always have? I'm sure a swipe across an iPad screen is still faster than shuffling paper pages.
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PeWi said 7:16AM on 7-24-2010
rather than turning pages, mic listens and the music is moved line by line according to where the music is, that way the performer does not need to manually interfere with foot or hand and s/he can look ahead at the same time
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Bill said 10:01AM on 7-24-2010
I actually use my iPad for piano music. Trust me, tapping the screen to advance the page is a lot easier than actually turning a page of music...I just scan extra pages if there is a repeat so that I'm always advancing forward and not trying to go back several pages at a time.
The foot pedal seems like overkill...if you can turn a page with your hand, it's a lot easier with the iPad!
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Jeff Harris said 12:37PM on 7-24-2010
This sounds like an interesting idea.
Even though Bluetooth has improved over time, I'd still worry about it dropping the connection at an inopportune time. This happens with my i7 MacBook Pro and Bluetooth mouse.
It might be better to interact DIRECTLY with the iPad, rather than add a second layer of hardware/complexity.
Tap the side (like Bump), or a quick swipe (like a iBooks) to change pages. Although there are times when iBooks jumps ahead more than one page.
I could see the iPad's screen size as a bigger problem, not so much for chamber works, but with orchestral and other extremely complex scores, like a Mahler symphony. At 1024 x 768 the pages would simply be too small to see.
Another thing is having the ability to write notes on the score. If you've ever been to an open rehearsal, musicians do this a lot... bowing, tempi, dynamics, etc.. This is probably solvable, like annotating PDFs.
Obviously, this is evolving.
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r23w said 12:28PM on 7-25-2010
why don't they just make one that listens to what you are playing and follows the music?
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