Developed by product designers Nathan Webb and Pasquale Totaro at the Royal Collage Of Art, this odd little piece of technology combines an accelerometer circuit and battery inside a bouncy rubber coating to give you a portable drum machine that is as easy to use as throwing and catching a ball. Every time the ball makes contact with a surface, it sends a signal via Bluetooth to its companion app to trigger sounds through headphones, speakers or any other sound output you connect it to. The oddball is also pressure sensitive, so the force of the impact will control the velocity of the note – the softer you bounce it, the more delicate the sound and vice versa.
The Oddball app contains expansive sound libraries to allow you to change what type of percussive sample is triggered by the ball, as well as an in-built looper to construct beats on the fly, bounce by bounce. You can even tweak the beat with various filters and effects direct from the phone. The app also has its own in-built social connectivity, allowing users to share their beats and sounds. On top of that, the ball can even function as a MIDI controller, and use its unique triggering method to control your plugins and parameters within your favourite DAW.
If you think this is the kind of technology that could inspire your next musical endeavour, you can help get the project off the ground at its Kickstarter here.
