Let the CHI flow

For the purposes of this post, that's Computer-Human Interaction, not the Chinese concept of life force.

I made my way to PARC again last Thursday to hear a great talk about how the landscape of electronic entertainment is changing thanks to developments in HCI. It really says something about my interests that so many of the topics that T. Blaine covered were already familiar to me. Off the top of my head, these include: Guitar Hero, Karaoke Revolution, the DS, the Wii,
D'CüCKOO, audiopad, and Jeff Han's multi-touch interface. What ties her interests together amongst each other, as well as with mine, is how custom hardware can facilitate musical creation through intuitive human manipulations.

Of all the above, only Karaoke Revolution uses the single most intuitive human tool for sound, the voice. One of the more interesting projects underway in the realm of speech-and-song control of computers was covered in this space earlier; unfortunately, this wonderful creative tool is still not publicly available.

However, an even greater voice-controlled application has just been released. Have you ever heard a song on the radio, but not caught the attribution, only to have that catchy hook running through your head, leaving you wishing that you knew who wrote the song? Thanks to midomi, you need wonder no more! Just sing into your browser and find all the covers of "Fly Me to the Moon", or who's done that "Doo-wah-ditty-ditty-dum-ditty-doo" song. They're still in "invitation only" beta, but not to worry; if you want me to get you past the velvet rope, just let me know in the comments.