Wait, Did Behringer Just Unveil An AR Interface for DeepMind 12?

Yes they did, and it's kind of mind-blowing   05-Oct-16

Synthfest Sheffield last weekend, Behringer were showing off their upcoming (by the end of the year we hear) DeepMind 12 analogue polysynth. You know, the one which had us all talking through the Summer? But wait, there's more... Behringer have also been working on an Augmented Reality interface - yes you did read that right. Using the Microsoft Hololens technology - they had to bring one in from the US - they've created an interface which gives the user an immersive heads up display using the AR tech.

Imagine the mod matrix the size of a large TV or three-dimensional control of parameters and envelopes? Yeah, its pretty cutting edge stuff.

What's perhaps most exciting about Hololens is that it maps the Augmented Reality part over your physical environment, it recognises the surfaces in real space and renders graphics on top of (the DeepMind 12) and other physical objects. It's pretty bonkers. Most applications so far have shown gaming aspects, which as you can imagine are a good fit, but this is the first time we've seen an AR interface for a physical thing. With the DeepMind 12 Wifi interface, this level of integration is absolutely possible. This could be a real shift in how we interact with our hardware and software.

The Hololens is the first generation of Holographic computing and is a totally self-contained device running Windows 10 which can superimpose holographics on top of the physical space you are in by using its on board camera to map and overlay the graphic elements over it.

Currently only Hololens development kits are available and they are not for the monetarily challenged, in fact you could buy three DeepMind 12 synthesizers for the cost of this cutting edge kit. But as tech advances, the price will inevitably fall, and the number of applications will increase. We wonder who will apply this tech to another synthesizer? Or indeed, we can imagine Behringer/Midas incorporating this into their digital mixers and other hardware...