Head Wand for Electronic Music

ISATMA Adaptive Music Controller — What It Does (Live) | (Source Code)

This is an accessibility-focused instrument designed for people with physical disabilities (including quadriplegia). Instead of using hands, you control it with your head — specifically by moving your nose in front of a webcam to play music. The idea here is that you have an extension sort of like a wand that you can use moving your forehead.  With feedback and discussion maybe it could be a useful tool and maybe there could be ways to configure it. Thanks for taking time to check out these explorations.

The 3D Scene

The main canvas shows a simple 3D character — a glowing wireframe skull with a yellow stick coming out of its mouth, representing a mouth stick (a real assistive device used by people with limited hand mobility). The tip of that stick is a small red ball, and that's your "pointer." As you move your head, the skull tilts and the red tip moves across the screen.

The Note Pads (The Arc)

Arranged in a curved arc across the screen are colored rectangular pads — one for each note in your chosen scale, spread across a rainbow of colors. When the red wand tip touches a pad, that note plays. Move your nose left or right to select different notes; dip down to trigger them. You can adjust how wide the arc spans and how far out it sits using sliders in the sidebar.

Two Ways to Make Sound

• Sound mode — plays audio directly in the browser using Tone.js, with a choice of synth types (sine, sawtooth, piano-like, etc.), reverb, and volume controls.

• MIDI mode — sends MIDI signals out via the Web MIDI API to a virtual cable, so notes go straight into your DAW (Ableton, Reaper, etc.) and play through any instrument plugin.

The Sidebar

A collapsible panel on the left with sections for: Scale & Mode (12 scales to choose from), Webcam preview, Arc configuration, Sound Engine settings, MIDI settings, and a Preset system where you can save and reload your favorite configurations as named presets — and even download them as a JSON file.

The MIDI Monitor

A small floating panel in the top-right that logs every note being sent in real time — with timestamps and note names. You can copy or email the log directly from the panel.

The Countdown

When you click Activate, a 5-second countdown gives you time to position yourself and look straight ahead. That moment sets your "center point" — everything is relative to where you were looking at zero.