I am Fiore Martin, researcher in a group at Queen Mary University of London on Accessibility, HCI and cross-modal collaboration.
We made, among others, a very nice VST/AU plug-in that sonifies peak meters. You should definitely check it out at http://depic.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/apm/
I am currently working on a proposal for fundings to develop an accessible interface to Pure Data. For those who don't know it, Pure Data
is a free graph-based visual programming language, that enables non programmers to create custom sound processors (synths, effects etc)
as well as to interface with sensors, input devices, MIDI, other computers etc. (below is a list of example of concrete usage of Pure Data)
Many artists and sound designers use pure data for their projects, but it's basically about building a visual diagram. So not the best tool in terms of a11y.
My research proposal is about making this tool accessible !
In the podcast linked in the next line Gawain Hewitt from Drake Music and I explain the rationale of the project a bit more in detail
http://depic.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/sites/depic.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/files/Access_Pd_Podcast.mp3
I would like to know if this sounds interesting to anybody and if anybody think they could benefit from it.
If the proposal gets funded I will be looking for people to take part in one or more hands-on sessions with the tool in order to give us feedback and maybe go back home with a brand new custom software synthesizer !
We could do the hands-on sessions either via skype or here at Queen Mary University of London
hope to hear from you
best
Fiore Martin
List of possible Pure Data use cases
Here is a youtube tutorial on how to make frequency modulation synthesis : https://youtu.be/DgeTHuDSgC0
I know the final outcome is quite simple and many plug-ins can give you way more advanced sounds than this, but please bear in mind
this is just a starting tutorial and once you get acquainted with the building blocks you can make your very own unique custom synths, like you would do with a modular Eurorack set.
I acknowledge you cannot make a VST that integrate nicely in your Daw with Pure data: you'll rather have to route the audio output with some kind of virtual audio connection.
The problem, though, is not Pure Data in itself but rather the closed nature of VST and other systems such a ReWire that are not open to the community.
So there is not much to do about it.
In this video, the same guy uses Pure Data to turn a logitech joypad into a MIDI controller for FM8 : https://youtu.be/HB_oVny33wA?t=6m6s
A nice project along the same lines, could be for instance to try and turn an Active Braille into a MIDI controller for your DAW.
Since Active Braille uses the hid (human interface device) protocol, which is supported natively in Pure Data, it would be just a matter of making the mappings between hid messages and MIDI out.
Not sure whether this is really feasible or there are technical issues, but if it's possible Pure Data is the perfect swiss army knife to do it
Another application I could think of is interactive installations. Imagine you are commissioned the sound design for an installation by an interaction designer.
He will set up cameras and sensors and send you real time information via Wi-fi about how many people are looking at the installation and the sound must change accordingly.
Maybe you come up with a good sound scape in your favorite DAW but then you want to low-pass filter it in real-time, according to the number of people.
Well in Pure Data you'd make a looper object that plays your sound scape, then an object that listens to the messages from the network and extrapolate the number of people.
Finally you would chain the network object and the looper object to a low pass filter object that will filter the sound of the latter according to the number received from the former.
Not sure how many blind people there are working on interactive installations. However, if there aren't many, one of the reasons is perhaps that the right tools for the job are not out there yet!
-- Fiore Martin Postgraduate Research Associate School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science Queen Mary University of London Mile End road, London E1 4NS, UK.
Tel.:020 7882 7240 Web: http://depic.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/DePIC_Research
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