Towards wearable support for nomadic musicians

This article presents the design of the Boogynoma system, which aims to support musicians on
the go. The system is designed to capture musical ideas which would normally require a guitar,
bass, or drum kit and recording equipment. To inform the design of the system, four emiprofessional
musicians, who play multiple instruments, have been interviewed about their current
work practice. The proposed system is wearable and consists of a prepared shirt, belt, shoes, and
technology that allows recognition of hand and foot gestures. A user can simulate playing electric
guitar (or bass) by strumming a patch on the shirt with guitar (or bass) strings. Different chord
types can be selected by pressing the appropriate chord shapes on the belt. Drumming is
supported by matching hand movements at particular locations in the air (or on the legs) to
particular drum sounds. In addition, functionality is available for controlling volume, and saving,
searching, and playing back sound files. To evaluate the system in an early stage of design, a
video has been created with a mock-up of the system to illustrate its intended use. To evaluate the
potential of the proposed system, the video will be presented to a number of people from the target
user population, together with a questionnaire about the perceived ease of use and usefulness of
the system.