SketchSynth: A Beatmaking Wireframer’s Wet Dream!

If only interface design was as simple as sketching a few shapes on paper and watching them come to life. With SketchSynth, you can now do just that to produce your own sound hardware.

Dreamt into beating, humming existence by Carnegie Mellon student Billy Keyes, SketchSynth can animate three basic functions: momentary buttons, toggle switches and sliders. Call them up by drawing a few basic shapes. Organise them as you please, and hey presto! You’ve got a MIDI board on ordinary printer paper.

I’m hard pressed to think of any practical applications for this apart from jam sessions in your bedroom, but it shows how quickly responsive technology is developing to make complex systems design increasingly simple for users to access, manipulate and create with.

The tabletop in the video is also a nice example of augmented spaces: a movement toward “smart” technology that looks like basic furniture but which can actually interface directly with you, your phone or whatever you want. Isn’t this a brave new world?