A First Look at the AirTurn Bluetooth iPad Page Turner Prototype

[SELG88]

isnt the ipad to small to read sheet music?

[hughsung]

@SELG88 There are several apps that give you the option to either crop the music to remove the borders, or to view the music in landscape mode, which really helps to zoom the score comfortably.

[SELG88]

where can i get it?

how is it called

[hughsung]

@SELG88 You can get the new Bluetooth iPad page turner at AirTurn (dot) com - look at the store section of the website to order. The official model is called the BT-105

[klavierspielerin83]

do this airturn work for thoes with low vision. i currently am forced for memorize everything i play. its a pain!!! does it 'zoom' in like a word document and i could still move around on the page???? im going to college to study piano and i dont think i can memorze EVERYTHING i play or would even like to play! i just dont want to waist my dollars before buying it. thanks for your time.

[BladeDC5]

Duh, accidentally hit send on iPad... My question is what ap are you using to display half a page in landscape mode for larger music notation. I find the notes too small to read in portrait mode given the iPad's smallish screen. Thanks, looks like a great product but would like to see the Bluetooth built into only pedal unit rather than have two boxes at my feet.

[BladeDC5]

Which music ap for

[freim93]

Very cool device!!! Ingenious using your foot!!

[jcbpark]

any updates on availability and pricing?

[tribalzbakla]

how about implementing a way to scroll the music with the tempo called for in the music or at your desired pace. simple! no use for hardware. only software. it's inevitable you'll need to touch the iPad, but at least you won't be spending an arm and a leg.

[LionelHUANG]

why not just design an app that can use the iPad's MIC to detect the notes that's being playing, turn the page when it matches the last measure of the page with personalized setting of the turning delay time setting and adjustable turning animation time length, it's good for the people that have busy feet...

just a though...lolo

[hughsung]

@LionelHUANG That's a great idea, but an entirely different (and extremely complex) technology, that doesn't really take real-life performance situations into account or the flexibility to be able to turn pages of more than just music. We designed a simple, fast, and effective page turner that you can use immediately. To have the computer "recognize" the music means either re-transcribing the sheet music image into MIDI or time coding a recording ahead of time - lots of extra work for the user.

[MrGaleanthropy]

@hughsung - dont underestimate what can be done...

You don't need MIDI, there are many qantizing algorithms available and it would be easy for the ipad to work out what bar you are playing... Unless you were playing with others! Bars could be slightly highlighted in a colour of the players choice... fading out and fading in. I like the idea of an option of when (how much in advance) you can get the page to change and this may just be a option in seconds... I'll buy one if that happens...

[sordinof]

@LionelHUANG Don't you worry that you won't notice whether the page has turned or not, because the turning was so fast that you didn't notice?

[cloverstreet]

@LionelHUANG and many others.....

This is still very far off! If you are playing a midi keyboard and the score has been midified it is possible. But doing realtime note detection on a real-piano just isn't there yet, except for single note music, especially in real-time. Everyone seems to think it is possible, just because they want it to be. My guess is it is still at least 5 years away. (And I am an audio programmer/musician.)

[LionelHUANG]

why not just design an app that can use the iPad's MIC to detect the notes that's being playing, turn the page when it matches the last measure of the page with personalized setting of the turning delay time setting and adjustable turning animation time length, it's good for the people that have busy feet...

just a though...lolo

[sordinof]

The page turns are so quick that people are likely to miss them. Not good feedback. This probably needs a very short page turning animation.

[hughsung]

@sordinof Ah, that reminds me of when I first started using computers to read music 8 years ago. The page turns were so fast, I got disoriented and almost threw myself off during a performance! Nowadays, I'm thankful for faster page turns especially when reading extremely fast pieces :) Yes, it does take a bit of getting used to, but in a performance situation, I'd much rather have an instant page turn than a distracting (and time consuming, no matter how short) animation.

[moiseslima]

I'm a musician and a tech geek, I was just waiting for something like that, that's greats. But come one, you don't need to make a device that huge to do this. Get a better engineer man!!!

[hughsung]

@moiseslima Hahaha! This was just a prototype to show that it works. Trust me, we are definitely going to miniaturize the unit - and it's going to be sweet!

[moiseslima]

@hughsung Cool! Thanks for the reply!

[gvidguy]

Why not just have the microphone listen for the notes that are being played right before the end of the page and turn it automatically?

[hughsung]

@gvidguy Much easier said than done. Optical recognition of printed or scanned musical notation is still far from ideal and not yet available in "realtime" speeds. The alternative is to prepare MIDI or XML versions of the sheet music, but that involves either retranscribing the piece, or hunting down one of those alternate versions...well, you get the point. With the AirTurn, you can just scan or download a piece of music and start turning pages, no extra effort required. Easy peasy.

[g3nair]

I've to ask my Dad to buy one for me.

[NRob84]

This is such a great invention! I'm sure string quartets/chamber groups of the near future will use this. Who knows, maybe orchestras too.

[x6stringfreakx]

Haha! Hugh remember I was in that room when you were filming this because I had a lesson? Haha...I feel special :) lol. Guys you should get this product, it's really cool!