PLaY+SPaCE: an ultrasonic gestural MIDI controller

PLaY+SPaCE is an ultrasonic gestural MIDI control system used to detect positions of people moving within a 100sqm sensing space. Eight ultrasonic sensors form the basis of the system, data from the sensors relayed to a proprietary hardware interface, then on to a range of software modules designed in MAX/MSP. Within the software incoming MIDI data is mapped to trigger sound events (samples, sequences and synthesis parameters) as well as mapped to control audio spatialisation, video and lighting events. This paper provides a broad overview of the system, problems encountered in its development and broad descriptions of trialled applications of the system.