The Miburi is a wearable musical instrument which was released commercially by the
Yamaha Corporation
is a Japanese multinational corporation and conglomerate with a very wide range of products and services. It is one of the constituents of Nikkei 225 and is the world's largest musical instrument manufacturing company. The former motorcycle div ...
’s Tokyo-based experimental division in 1995.
Categorisation and functions of the Miburi
The Miburi can be characterized as an “inside-in” system according to Axel Mulder’s three categories of motion sensing systems:
* inside-in - sensor(s) and source(s) that are both on the body;
* inside-out - on-body sensors that sense artificial external sources;
* outside-in - external sensors that sense artificial sources on the body
It conforms to what Todd Winkler refers to as the ‘body sensor’ group of controllers (the other are spatial sensors, acoustic models and ‘new instruments’).
The Miburi system consists of a vest with embedded
capacitive displacement sensor Capacitive displacement sensors "are non-contact devices capable of high-resolution measurement of the position and/or change of position of any conductive target". s, two hand-grips, and shoe inserts with
pressure sensors
A pressure sensor is a device for pressure measurement of gases or liquids. Pressure is an expression of the force required to stop a fluid from expanding, and is usually stated in terms of force per unit area. A pressure sensor usually act ...
, and a belt-worn signal distribution unit joined by a cable to a small
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
/
MIDI
MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...
converter. A wireless version, conforming to Japanese
wireless
Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most ...
frequency regulations was available within Japan only.
The Miburi's belt unit, “MBU-20”, processes data from the sensors into MIDI pitch and velocity information. The unit can be programmed to interpret the data using three ‘trigger’ modes: ‘Cross-point’ mode; ‘Stop’ mode and ‘All’ a combination of both modes. ‘Cross-point’ mode measures the speed of the transducer’s flexion as it traverses its zero point (when the flex sensor is straight). The six ‘flex’ sensors send 12 notes – this is because they measure inward and outward movement of each joint as separate notes. ‘Stop’ mode sends note and maximum velocity values at the conclusion of a gesture. ‘All’ interprets sensor data in both modes simultaneously.
The mapping of each sensor is highly programmable. Each sensor can be mapped on the synthesizer unit, “MSU-20”, to any MIDI note, interpreted in any of the three modes outlined above according to 48 different response modes. The response modes (preset by Yamaha) define the manner in which the sensor’s output is graphed to velocity. All the above definitions are components of a single Map ‘Preset’, there are 32 programmable preset positions available.
Evaluation of the Miburi
These features make the Miburi extremely effective as a
computing input device
Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, e ...
. However the Miburi’s synthesizer unit is limited in its possibilities as a sound source and more importantly is only able to process gestures in a direct one-to-one relationship to the sounds they produce.
The need to ‘tether’ the Miburi to its synthesizer unit is also clearly a drawback for movement detection and a restriction for the dancer. However, the Miburi has the robust design, and very predictable sensor output that might be expected from one of the principal
electronic musical instrument
An electronic musical instrument or electrophone is a musical instrument that produces sound using electronic circuitry. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical, electronic or digital audio signal that ultimately is plugged into ...
manufacturers.
The Miburi may be combined with more sophisticated sound sources and software-based interactive mapping such as
MAX/msp
Max, also known as Max/MSP/Jitter, is a visual programming language for music and multimedia developed and maintained by San Francisco-based software company Cycling '74. Over its more than thirty-year history, it has been used by composers, per ...
. Extensions of its basic functions include control of video, lighting, utilization as a component of a “multimedia orchestra” and “to help children engage their whole bodies while interacting with computers”.
Composers of music for the Miburi
*
Saburo Hirano "Ping Bang" (1995) for solo MIBURI - Uses the Miburi as a Multimedia controller
*
Susumu Hirasawa
**
P-MODEL
P-Model (also typeset as P-MODEL and P. Model) was a Japanese electronic rock band started in 1979 by members of the defunct progressive rock band Mandrake. The band has experienced many lineup revisions over the years but frontman Susumu Hira ...
*
Hitomi Kaneko
Hitomi Kaneko (金子 仁美) is a female Japanese classical music composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. ...
"捩じれた時 II Le Temps Tordu II" (for Miburi and Three Dancers)(1997)
*
Hiroshi Chu Okubo professional miburist
*
Lindsay Vickery "your sky is filled with billboards of the sky" (2002) for solo MIBURI - Uses the Miburi as a Multimedia controller
[Vickery, Lindsay, “The Yamaha Miburi MIDI jump suit as a controller for STEIM’s Interactive Video software Image/ine”, Proceedings of the Australian Computer Music Conference 2002, RMIT Melbourne”]
References
Notes
*Geers, Doug, (2000). “Multimedia Interactive Works, Miller Theater.(Columbia Interactive Arts Festival), in Computer Music Journal . 24.2 (Summer 2000): p85(3).” http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-168285305/multimedia-interactive-works-miller.html
*Mulder, A., 1994. "Human movement tracking technology, Hand Centered Studies of Human Movement Project, Technical Report 94-1". http://www.xspasm.com/x/sfu/vmi/HMTT.pub.html
*Nagashima, Yoichi, "Real-Time Interactive Performance with Computer Graphics and Computer Music, in Proceedings of the 7th IFAC/IFIP/IFORS/IEA Symposium on Analysis, Design, and Evaluation of Man-Machina Systems, IFAC” 1998. http://nagasm.suac.net/ASL/paper/ifac98.pdf
*Nishimoto, Kazushi, Mase, Kenji, Fels, Sidney, “Towards Multimedia Orchestra: A Proposal for an Interactive Multimedia Art Creation System. ICMCS, Vol. 1 1999: pp. 900-904”, 1999, http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/6322/16911/00779322.pdf?arnumber=779322
*Vickery, Lindsay, “The Yamaha MIBURI MIDI jump suit as a controller for STEIM’s Interactive Video software Image/ine”, Proceedings of the Australian Computer Music Conference 2002, RMIT, Melbourne.
*Yamaha Corporation, “MIBURI R3 Manual. Tokyo, Japan: Yamaha Corporation”, 1996" http://www2.yamaha.co.jp/manual/pdf/emi/japan/port/MiburiR3J.pdf.
*http://www.yamaha.co.jp/design/pro_1990_08.html
*Winkler, Todd, “Composing Interactive Music: techniques and ideas using Max. Cambridge Massachusetts, MIT Press”, 1998.
*Zigelbaum, Jamie, Millner, Amon, Desai, Bella, Ishii, Hiroshi, “BodyBeats: whole-body, musical interfaces for children. CHI Extended Abstracts 2006: pp. 1595-1600”, 2006 https://web.archive.org/web/20100619144329/http://tangible.media.mit.edu/content/papers/pdf/bodybeats_CHI06.pdf
External links
Miburi on Yamaha website{{in lang, ja
Electronic musical instruments
Computing input devices