For decades now, we’ve been able to quickly and reliably interface musical instruments to computers. These tools have generally made making and recording music much easier, but they’ve also opened up a number of other out-of-the-box ideas we might not otherwise see or even think about. For example, [Joren] recently built a human interface device that lets him control a computer’s cursor using a flute instead of the traditional mouse.
Rather than using a MIDI interface, [Joren] is using an RP2040 chip to listen to the flute, process the audio, and interpret that audio before finally sending relevant commands to control the computer’s mouse pointer. The chip is capable of acting as a mouse on its own, but it did have a problem performing floating point calculations to the audio. This was solved by converting these calculations into much faster fixed point calculations instead. With a processing improvement of around five orders of magnitude, this change allows the small microcontroller to perform all of the audio processing.
[Joren] also built a Chrome browser extension that lets a flute player move a virtual cursor of sorts (not the computer’s actual cursor) from within the browser, allowing those without physical hardware to try out their flute-to-mouse skills. If you prefer your human interface device to be larger, louder, and more trombone-shaped we also have a trombone-based HID for those who play the game Trombone Champ.
It would be less objectionable to listen to if it was ultrasonic. You could even 3d print a full keyboard, using a fan to pressurise it. now, a joke: The legend of zelda, ocarina of xy positioning system.
Willy Wonka was ahead of his time. Now this solution just needs a tune to text converter so it can also work as a keyboard too.
Now if it involved a speech converter then it is a talking flute and it would be HR Puffnstuff with Witchiepoo trying to steal it.
I am truly fascinated by the power of HID in computers. So cool and opens so many possibilities. Made a try on one of these devices once: https://hackaday.io/project/5165-wireless-batteryless-mouse
That’s not a flute it’s a recorder. Flutes you blow across the hole(s) not down in it
Yeah I came to say this too. Not a flute.
Yup me too.
A recorder is a type of flute. An internal duct flute according to wikipedia. In Dutch it’s called blokfluit (block flute, because it is a flute with a block inside).
Also, just because the author uses a recorder flute, that doesn’t preclude one from using any other kind of flute, and possibly even entirely different instruments (depending on how selective the audio filtering is).
Skin Flute is certainly a ‘human interface device’.
As is the old ‘hairy harmonica’.
What happened to R2-D2?
I’m sure Cap’n Crunch approves this.
2600!
Transverse flute or fipple flute, this is like the turtle or tortoise argument. The ocarina is neither but a Helmholtz resonator. The pitch cannot cover much more than an octave up from all holes closed. With just 4 holes, up down left right, or 3 and all holes closed as the fourth. An ocarina can be mouse shaped and even smaller very pocketable.
Sooner or later all the computer mouses will start to follow this dude.
That’s a pricy version of an RP2040 board that ‘nano connect’.
Seems a bit overkill to pay €50 for a board with a RP2040 as processing unit.