Actuators

These are key to how individuals communicate their musical intentions. Actuators detect movement of the user e.g. pressing a push button. The actuators are plugged directly into a variety of bespoke base units, synthesizers or sound file players. See [Projects]. Alternatively they can be built into a device as in the case of the "Sound Blanket"

N.B. A actuator is simply a generic term for anything from an on / off switch to a pressure pad or a range finder that detects movement and produces a signal that that in turn is used to trigger an event e.g. a chord in the electronics. Some senrors used in building an actuator can be found on this website under devices.

Some thought is being given to augment what are basically switchesmounted n a case to more intellgent actuators with a built in micr-controller. The 9 degrees of freedom ((DF) device would benefit from this approach.

Picture	Description	Notes
	A very large push button. Thumping it with a clenched fist could give an A major chord!	If motor skills are imprecise, this push button may still make an easy target to press and generate a basic chord, percussion, monotone sound, sound sequence or audio file. This is very simple to make from off the shelf components. From recent interactions, mounting one of these on a board would make it more stable.
	Finger drums, chords, single tones or sound files. A stroke victim could start with a single, one finger beat, and them progress to more complex rhythms. Which could be tracked for objective measure of outcomes.	These actuators were designed to demonstrate that very little force is required to trigger a sound. They are made out of long levered micro switches. I may replace these with proximity sensors / and / or pressure sensors. You can start with a simple "A" chord in month one; "A" and "E" chords in month two, "A", "E" and "D" chords in month three etc. This increasing complexity of motor action can be data logged for linear baseline progress analysis.
	A Joy Stick, a familiar tool for users of assitive technology.	4 way operation,left to right, front and back. I've found able bodied people are not as adept at using these as those with impairments.
	Finger tip buttons	These require only slight pressure and a very small movement of the finger tip to operate.
	Floor Pressure Pads	These can often be seen in action at The National Museum of Computing during holiday times. Look out for "Sound Bytes". They are used to create either a floor drum or floor guitar. They are based on alarm system pressure pads and are readily available.
	Foot Switches	These can be used in same way as the pressure pads. They have the additional advantage that two can sometimes be placed under one foot.
	Ultrasonic Range Finder	These are very useful for creating air guitars or air drums. See Air-Drum-Flute-Guitar. Not all users like to touch devices so a range finder can still allow interaction.
	Many push buttons.	Buttons for every situation.
	Capacitive / Proximity Sensing	Copper tape, or blank printed circuit boards can be utilised for proximity sensing. Depending on how the appropriate parameters are set they can trigger sound by direct contact or even from several centimetres away. Thus a normal table can be turned into an electronic drum kit. See the "Planxtone" or the "talking whiteboard" for examples of use.
	A Collection of Actuators	It sometimes useful to have range of actuators t see what works best. A more bespoke device can be created later. e.g. depending on whether head, elbow, finger, fist or foot movement is being utilised.