The I-CubeX line of products aims to facilitate the design and implementation of environments and objects that respond to human actions such as walking, reaching, touching etc. as well as environmental parameters such as illumination, temperature, humidity etc.. The response can be in the form of sound, music, video, graphics, animation, robotic movement, etc.. Such responses are generated by I-CubeX actuators and/or 3rd party equipment. While it is a widely used tool for prototyping and experimentation wrt. human interfacing it is also perfectly suitable as a scientific research tool to gather data about movement and behaviour.
Application scope
The I-CubeX line of products only includes tools to capture the human actions and/or environmental variables, the tools to make these signals available to other equipment such as a computer or a musical instrument and tools to create responses using actuators. To communicate with such equipment the MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) data format is used, transmitted via MIDI cable, USB cable or wireless Bluetooth. Communication via WiFi is implemented using the OSC (Open Sound Control) and WS (Web Socket) protocol. MIDI and OSC are widely implemented protocols for communications between musical equipment which have also found their way into video, graphics and animation software as well as various equipments, such as lights, used in theme parks and live shows. Even though I-CubeX uses the MIDI and OSC data formats, tools are provided to output to devices that use other protocols, enlarging its application scope to gaming, engineering and science.
Components
To accommodate a wide variety of designs of such responsive environments and objects, the I-CubeX environment consists of the following modular components that can be configured in a multitude of ways:
- One or more sensors.
- One or more actuators.
- One or more digitizers.
- Configuration software.
Sensors and Actuators
Sensors and Actuators connect to a digitizer through a miniature, flexible cable with a 3- or 4-pin plug. Sensors can be positioned on the human body or on animals, on walls or floors or on sculptures. The multitude of sensors available from I-CubeX cover almost any human, animal or object motion, as well as a variety of environmental parameters. I-CubeX sensors output either analog voltages or digital I2C signals. I2C is a commonly used bi-directional protocol in robotics. I-CubeX Actuators are controlled via binary logic voltages, PWM (pulse width modulation) signals or digital I2C signals.
Primary Activity
Supplier of motion sensors.