World's Tiniest Violin Now Plays Music, for Project Soli-Powered Putdowns
An ideal gadget for that withering comeback.
The minds at Design I/O have come up with a brilliant new way to show you really don’t sympathize with somebody. Friend got too many parties to go to? Boss doesn’t have time to buy themselves a second PlayStation? Roommate spilled their piña colada on the beach, while you were holed up in an office somewhere? Just play them the world’s tiniest violin.
According to Creative Applications Network, the invention is based on Google’s Project Soli chip that measures hand movements for gesture-based inputs. The Soli uses radar technology for motion tracking, emitting electromagnetic waves through a tiny chip and measuring the reflected waves.
The world’s tiniest violin takes the input from Soli and uses it to see if the hand is making a motion that resembles two fingers moving together, as if they’re trying to play a tiny violin. Design I/O used a machine learning tool called Wekinator to train the software on what counts as violin motions. The results are impressive.
Soli has many real-world applications. Its creators envision it one day being used for interacting with computers, presumably in a more meaningful way than “oh your life must suck.” The developers outline on their website ways Soli could be used to turn your fingers into a button, dial, or slider, without actually touching any physical hardware.
World's tiniest slider.
It may be a while, if ever, before Project Soli finds its way into smartphones. Hopefully that day is soon, as being able to whip out your phone and make sarcastic violin gestures is really the pinnacle of what humanity can hope to achieve with mobile technology.
