 Hello everyone. Are we having a good time? Obviously we are. We're all nerds at EMF. Alright so in the grand tradition of my EMF talks nothing worked about an hour ago and I arrived here with basically nothing. So we're going to go on a little journey of how I made a ridiculous instrument as a prototype and how it's actually become a real thing that you can buy in a real shop. And I'm going to tell you about some of my ridiculous music things that I've done with it and with lots of other people as well. And hopefully get you to use this in your classrooms. Use this at home. It's super easy and it's super cheap. I've tried to make it as simple as possible. Anyway, so onwards this is the mini-moo and this is prototype two of the mini-moo. It's a gesture-controlled musical instrument that uses chiptune. Well, I'll play some of that for you in a minute. But I designed this for kids to be able to make gesture-controlled instruments. But more than just playing an instrument, I wanted them to be able to make an instrument. So they actually sew the whole thing, they wire it, they code it and then they make the music and perform it themselves. It's super easy, but it's just a starting point. So I'm hoping to inspire lots of kids to just play around and have fun with technology. So I don't know why that just went forward without me touching anything, but never mind. So as you know, I'm Helen. I made the mini-moo. I'm a maker. I'm a writer. I do some education stuff. I live in Berlin and sometimes London. And I like making musical instruments. I think it's a really enjoyable experience. I would call myself a fairly shitty musician. I play probably 20 different instruments, all of them extremely badly. And that's one of the reasons why I love making my own instruments, because I'm the best in the world at playing the things that I made myself. So this is a story about how I made this. So it's inspired by an amazing musical instrument called the Mimoo Glove. Can I just get a quick hand up? Who's heard of the Mimoo Glove? Quite a lot of you. OK, cool. So, as it says on the screen, the Mimoo is a very fancy pants midi controller. Now, that's a bit jargony, and I like to avoid jargon. But really, midi is just a way of making music with a computer, OK? So when we make music with our mouths or with a traditional instrument, we've got lots of wobbly lines that come out of our mouths, like sound waves. But in a computer, they use something called midi, which is basically a pidoni instead of wiggly. And the Mimoo is a wonderful instrument that was designed, thought of many years ago, by a musician called Imogen Heap. And she can do these amazing things with it. Really kind of... So she's really passionate about electronic music and expressive instrumentation of electronic music. And she kind of was sat behind her desk making these beautiful concoctions. And then when she went out into the world to try and perform these things that she made, she felt like this complete disconnect from her audience. She was unable to perform in the way that you might perform with a guitar or a flute. You just stand in behind your computer. And even though electronic music is very exciting, actually visually to be performed is actually kind of dull. So she sat there around ten years ago to make electronic music performance expressive again. Now, the thing about being ahead of your time is that sometimes some of your ideas are a little bit impractical. So her Mimoo glove is amazing and has been on tour with some incredible big names, including Ariana Grande. I've got a short clip of her using one later. But it's not quite cancer market yet because it's expensive, it's complicated. It has to work in these multi-dates, multi-arena festival situations. So the technology is super complex. This is what it is. It's got all these different really cool sensors. It's got bend sensors, flex sensors. It's got visual feedback. It's got haptic feedback, which means it does nice, busy things when you do things. It's been really designed by musicians, for musicians. Really cool, really nice to wear. I've had a play on them. Really amazing piece of kit. So, yeah, I talked about her. She is quite famous and she does do cool things. So why did I start doing this? I came across through my music technology work. We crossed paths through Terry, who's actually there. I said, do you know what? This glove is super inspiring. I can see this working super well to inspire kids into technology. If you know me, you'll know that I'm a big advocate for creative technology and for the power of creative technology in classrooms, in homes, and just generally for fun. I think we sometimes overstate how much worthiness there is to technology. Sometimes it's alright to just mess around with it and have a nice time. Gesture control is really one of the things I particularly like doing. I find it expressive. I find it really enjoyable. That says it all really. It's fun and I like it. I was doing quite a lot of work with gesture control. This is a picture of something I did with one of my friends. We did a hack together. Her name's Coco Sato. She's a really amazing electronic origami. We did a gesture controlled flirting device based on Japanese technology. Sorry, Japanese fan artistry. It was a really cool hack. I started thinking more and more in my own personal work about gesture control and nonverbal signalling and how cool it was and how much I wanted to do more stuff in the classroom with it. Another reason I really liked Imogen's work and wanted to do something with it is that I know from my experience that teaching in a classroom is more effective if you're giving them something that's real. If you're giving them something meaty to chew on and you can be like, look at this cool thing that someone's actually doing with this technology and now we can do something like it. It's really inspiring to kids, especially the kids that don't really necessarily see the point of the technology for its own sake. So having real world tech that's linked to actual jobs, actual outcomes or joy is a really wonderful way in my eyes and in my experience of democratising technology. So, oh yes. So this is the glove in action. So I feel like I've talked a lot about something that you haven't actually seen. This is Ariana Grande, as I'm sure the younger ones of you all know, using the glove. So based on that, I start a commitment with the idea of a glove that's inspired by Imogen's work and inspired by the work that's been done by her team on this. And I came up with the idea of doing a really stripped down version of this. Something I love doing with technology is ripping stuff out of it and trying to make it the simplest thing it possibly can be and also make it the cheapest it possibly can be as well because I know teachers got no money. So I approached Imogen through a mutual friend and said, hey, I've got this idea for a children's glove that's inspired by your glove. I reckon I can do it for less than 50 quid and I reckon I can do it in a family and teacher friendly format. Do you want to let me have a go at it? And she went, well, we've got this event coming up in 10 days. Geffancy having a stab. And I went, yeah, all right. And that's what came of it. So this was the first version of the glove. First of all, this is an interlude here and I'm going to talk about this. So this is using the BBC Microbit which loads of you will already know about but if you don't, it's a very simple microcontroller designed specifically for young people but I've also used it with lots of artists and people who don't want to become specialists so it's a way that making your own PCBs or even using Arduino to a certain extent, wires you to become. So a microbit allows you to dabble in electronics which is one of the reasons I think it's just a lovely platform. Anyway, inside this little microcontroller which is up here, we've got something called an accelerometer which basically it can tell where it is in space. It can tell if it's up, it can tell if it's down, it can tell if it's being jiggled about. And I was like, well, you know what? That'll do. We'll just have an accelerometer and we'll make it do something with that. So we stripped it right back to that. Microbit's a lovely thing. Let me see. Oh, here we are. In all of my workshops, this is the first piece of code that a child will write. It's just block code, they just drag it across, unshake, start melody, bad a bing. And then they upload it and it does it and it blows their fragile little minds. It's very exciting, it's very exciting. You don't need to make something complex and then basically two hours, I'll basically just have a sit-down, have a cup of tea. They're just off making their own melodies, off doing different types of things with these things. For someone who's leading a classroom or leading a workshop, you're like, yep, job is done, that is over. I'm having a cuppa and a sit-down. This is genuinely how simple it is and it does blow their little minds. It's kind of amazing. Back to the prototype. I would say that even though it was successful, it was a bit bonkers to do something, take something from a little seed of an idea to an actual prototype that I presented in front of 300 people in 10 days. But, you know, I would do it again. It was great fun. So, making the prototype, I... Here we are. This is part of the prototyping session for the first ever version of the glove. There are some kids in the room, actually, who were also at this prototyping session. I wanted to talk a little bit about this. I do quite a lot of developing of stuff for kids. People are always, my client is always really surprised by how much I ask the opinions of the children. And I think that just makes... This is what I have to say about that. User testing really works. I just wrote a book on DIY electronics for kids and I didn't choose a single project that went into my books. Children did. Every single project was chosen by kids. And I think it's really important when you're making something for somebody, just like a glove, anything for a kid. I mean, ask them. Ask them what they think. I mean, it's not super complicated. I mean, for the first one, I just sat down with five young people, we made different gloves, and rather than just asking them, I watched how they interacted with it. And it gives you an idea of what they find easy, what they find difficult, how long these things take, you know, the kind of level of skills. And then the second version, I did, I think I did, there were 50 girls in the class and I ran the whole workshop on my own, which was fine, actually. But you can really gain a lot from what they tell you. And I always say, hey, you are my users. I'm prototyping. Can you give me all your feedback and it makes them feel super important and super special. So if there's anyone out there who does do a lot of work with kids, please do involve them in the decision making. I think it's a really good thing to do and it gives them joy and it gives them confidence and it means that you actually make something better at the end of it. So what else? This is from the second prototyping session. That was absolutely delightful. We had a lot of musicians in this one, people making the Harry Potter theme tune. We had lots of kids. Do you know what? I haven't played one yet. That's pretty remiss of me, isn't it? I think I should do that. Do you like to hear one? So this is, I'd say, the one that, just before we go to press, this is the almost final version. You can come and have a look at it at the front afterwards. The crocodile clips will be a bit shorter. So it's really simple. Basically, the kids, they have a felt thing here which has got their different size hands on it. They cut it out. They sew it. Pretty simple, you'd think, but actually that's the hardest bit. That takes like an hour. Everything else takes about half an hour. Then they wire it up. Three crocodile clips. It's very simple, but it's age-appropriate way. There's power and ground. You're talking a little bit about circuits. Then they actually code it. Let me play this. So this is code that was written by an 11-year-old girl. I'll see if you recognise it. There's quite a lot of old people in here, so maybe you won't. I think this is a really good example of how gesture-based, and this was actually done not just as a song, but as a choreography. She had this little dance that went along with it. Anyway, here we go. Of course it's not working. I'm going to have to re-upload the code. Oh no, I don't have my USB cable with me. This is very terrible. I don't know why that's not working. Yeah. It's EMF, I know. Nothing works at EMF. It's probably just got damp or something. It was working about 10 seconds. It's not that kind of USB cable. I know, I know. It's micro USB to USB, yeah. I am EMF, I love you. There's literally no reason. Okay, where's my code? All right, a little bit of light-caving here. Okay. Oh no, it's not going to be a surprise, isn't it? Because you'll be able to see what name it is. I know I'm tricking you. Here we go. All right, one second. Talk amongst yourselves. It works. I don't know, this is why I love EMF. I could never get away with this shit anywhere else. Here we have the world premiere. Coded by an 11-year-old girl. Oh dear, all right, let's see if this works. Come on. Legitimately. You just heard that though, right? Seriously. There's no reason for it not to work. I knew I should have solved the net. I think I spent too long doing this. I think I'm just going to have to give up. So these are all coded individually. I'm afraid I can show you this kind of code as well. You had your time. You wasted it. You're not getting any more of my attention. All right. Let's put the presentation back up. There's nobody. Oh, come on. Here we go. Let's put that back over there. There we go. That'll do. Yeah. Okay. So the kind of things that kids were doing were amazing. They were doing really cool songs. They were doing amazing sound effects gloves. In fact, Finn, who's over there, did one of my favourite ones. There's an effect on micro bits, which is freefall. So if you are freefalling, it can detect it. And he was like, do you think that if it fell off a building, that it would be able to know? And I was like, yes, I think it would. And then this smile spread across his face and off he scurries to his computer, and suddenly he comes back with this glove that when you drop it or fall off a building, it plays you the funeral march back. Nice. Good job, Finn. One of my favourites. Good job, Finn. All right. So the next thing that we did, after doing all these amazing user testing and having a really nice time in classrooms across the country, is that we ended up having a chat with the lovely Paul from Pymaroni, and that's basically working with them has been like heart eyes emoji just down the board. And they really let out the concept, and obviously it's really easy to manufacture. I mean, it's largely some felt. We've got a lovely PCB that we made, which is the world's first sewable speaker. And it comes with everything that's included, you know, everything in needle and thread and all those bits and bobs. It's going to be in a really nice shiny box and all that kind of stuff. So, I mean, this is the first time I've had a proper kit. I've done my own stuff before, kind of more DIY style, kind of making everything myself on laser cutters and 3D printers. Had my first small successful hit, which was a robot unicorn about a year ago, had a modest number of orders and suddenly thought, oh my God, this is terrible. Why on earth would I want to be a manufacturer? I hate this. So at that point I decided, right, okay, the next time I do a product, I really want to do it with somebody who knows what they're doing because I didn't. And going through that experience, as someone who's primarily been a bedroom maker and a hackspace maker, and then kind of actually going to a small company, but a company that really knows what they're doing has been really exciting for me. I got to press go on a pick-and-place machine, which was box ticked. Love that. I'm going to have this box as a kit coming out I think in October, I think. We hope. It'll be out, but we're going to sell it for 39 quid, which is, I think, pretty good for everything that's included. But it's been my first thing that I've done taking it from a make to an actual product, and it's been really eye-opening, understanding all of the different things that could possibly go wrong. Although it's been buffered somewhat by being working with Pimaroni. And so I was going to make some music, but I did just wipe the code on the thing that makes this go. So you're just going to have to pretend, and it was working in the field over there. So you just have to pretend that my robot arm is controlling these robot arms. So you can't really see because it's quite dark, but you can come up and have a look. I have got three robotic arms, solenoids, like push-pull things, attached to some levers that hit a really cool xylophone that I've had since I was really young. So let's mute that one. Let's play that and see what happens. And you can check that with gesture. And I really wanted to show you these things as well, because it's not just about controlling computer, it's not just about making chip-dune music. This actually feeds into a wider ecosystem. So the microbit, a 13-quid computer can control really expensive and really professional pieces of music software. This is going through Ableton Live. It can also control garage band seamlessly. It can control your iPad. It can control actual physical instruments that use MIDI as well. And if I hadn't wiped the code that we'd worked so hard on, it can control a loop of my voice as well. So I can actually sing, it can control it, it can do delay, it can do reverb. Just from two buttons and an xy axis, there's so much more in there. There's a magnetometer inside there that you can do really cool things with. You can have directional-based sound that you can explore. That's enough of that. Thank you very much. I also want to show you this cool thing that I made with my friend, Tom. Oh, no. Which is here. So this is again. This is just using two microbits. See if it works. Two microbits and some copper piping. This is the gesture control there. So it's basically angles. I wrote some code, so that the angles control the different notes that are being played on this copper pipe instrument. That's just being hit with solenoids again. It was really fun. Let me just play that again from the beginning. Look, so here we are. So this is radio signalling different angles down to this other microbit, which is then sending that data via serial to a free open-source piece of music technology, which is super cool. So, yeah, I think that is exactly my time up. But I think if anybody has any questions, or wants to come and have a look at my little robot arm, or actually wants to come up here and see my annoying... I think this never doesn't work. It always works. But, yeah. Come up and say hi. That was half an hour, apparently. Thank you. And I will hang around here, so come and say hi and ask me anything.