Imogen Heap's Mi.Mu gloves will 'change the way we make music'

Musician Imogen Heap invited Dezeen to her home-studio to film this exclusive demonstration of her Mi.Mu gesture-control gloves, which allow her to control instruments and computers on stage by using hand gestures.

"For the first time I get to see how somebody else uses the gloves," Heap told us. "The minute somebody puts their hands in them, they're starting to think creatively about them. I'm really happy that you're going to see what they're up to."

[MITHYKA]

Imogen Heap is criminally underrated. Singer, songwriter, composer, producer, engineer, developer, this woman can do it all. She's always been so far ahead of her time.

[idletalker]

She completely revolutionized the electronic music industry and not a lot of people took notice. She is astounding

[Joe]

"the software is open source"- she's one of few who actually cares about the spirit of innovation.

[EthalaRide]

All my years of air guitar will finally pay off!

[ARSZLB]

this is blowing my mind…those gloves and their programming must be so insanely complex, i can’t even “Imogen” 😆

seriously though, this was 8 YEARS AGO?! WHY HAS THIS NOT GONE ANY FURTHER

[xavierglover]

It sounds like she was almost being emotional when talking about the gloves, you can really tell she knows how much she's changing music. And it also proves how much she cares about music.

[moses]

Can't believe this video came out 6 years ago and we're still not really seeing this tech being used. Crazy..

[jac]

I want to try sign language while wearing those

[InnuendoXP]

"pitch, yaw, and roll"

Thanks for explaining music composition in a way that makes sense to us flight sim enthusiasts :)

[Peter]

Amazing. I have to say that turning a part of your body into an instrument is the biggest step in music so far. We never know what we will be getting at next.

[synonymous_]

Narrarator: "But alas, They did not change the way we make music"

[ChristieFreya]

Why isn’t this getting more attention?
This is such a fascinating invention!

[theponton]

I feel bad for sleeping on her. She's very creative

[Carrosive]

2, 884 days of waiting for the gloves to "change the way we make music" 🤔

[cameodamaneo]

It's been six years and I'm still waiting for Imogen Heap's Mi.Mu Gloves to "change the way we make music".

[byronmarais]

Guys please stop saying this is JUST like a Theremin... the last time I checked, you couldn't map movements on a theremin to specific parameters in Ableton. Play nice ;)

[wolfgangrecordings]

motion control tech developments over the last few years means you no longer need the gloves, people at my uni were writing code that just lets you use a webcam and it detects movement & gestures, and it seemed to be a fairly normal thing to do (that was 4 years ago). good thing too cos they're super expensive, but anyone can afford a webcam for their setup

[justb]

It doesn't surprise me at all that Imogen Heap is creating this, the song Hide and Seek was other worldly, this is completely other universe-ly 🌌. And she talks about it like she chatting about how she likes her coffee

[Widowsaint]

Way ahead of her time, can’t believe I haven’t seen this until now

[Grandma_Jizzzzzzzard]

I have so much respect for her making making this technology open source. Thank you, Imogen.

You and I are the same age. When you were coming up, I was working in radio. I remember the first time I heard Hide & Seek. I was in the soundproof production room, listening to the track over and over again and absolute and total spiritual shock. In a good way.❤❤