Sensor Instrumentsexperimental lab · play the phone itself
Air Fiddle EXPERIMENTAL The original: a violin you bow by moving the phone up & down and finger by tilting, with lots of knobs to shape the tone. (AF2 is the expanded version.)
AF2 EXPERIMENTAL The Air Fiddle: sweep the phone through the air like a bow — movement makes the sound. Tilt to pick the note, twist the phone to change key, and tap the modulation pads (octave / tremolo / growl) to shape the one voice.
AF3 · Optical Bow EXPERIMENTAL An Air Fiddle that bows with the camera : it watches the scene like an optical mouse and merges that with the accelerometer to turn the phone's motion into the bow stroke. Hold still for silence; tilt sets the pitch.
Touch Harp EXPERIMENTAL A polyphonic string bed for your fingertips: each column is a note in the key, laid out low to high. Press with several fingers at once to play chords; slide up a string for a brighter tone.
Lighthouse EXPERIMENTAL A light-theremin: cover the camera for silence, open your hand for sound. Auto-tunes to the room. Pitch and volume follow the light.
Hand Synth EXPERIMENTAL Play the air with your hand — the camera tracks all 21 finger joints. Height=pitch, pinch=volume, finger curls=effects, and hand shapes switch the instrument (🤘 guitar, ✊ bass…).
HS2 · Duet Hands EXPERIMENTAL Strap the phone to your chest and conduct with both hands at once: your right hand sings the melody, your left hand holds the chords — locked to one key so they always harmonize.
HS3 · Duet Hands+ EXPERIMENTAL A refined Duet Hands: smoother, richer tones with a master limiter, steadier hand tracking (no more one-hand-plays-both), and new expressive axes — reach a hand toward/away from the camera for volume, and slide left/right to pan.
Face Synth EXPERIMENTAL Your face is the instrument: open your mouth to sing — openness is the volume. Tilt your head for the melody (close both eyes to snap to notes), nod for octave jumps, turn sharply to change voice, shape your lips for the vowel (oo/ah/ee), smirk to pan, raise your brows for vibrato, wink for drums, puff your cheeks to growl.
Face Choir EXPERIMENTAL A chord machine played with expressions — your emotion is the harmony. Smile for major, frown for minor, pucker for sus4. Turn your head to walk the chords (I–VII), open your mouth to swell the choir, lift your chin to raise & brighten the voicing, smirk to invert it, wink for a bass drone or a harp strum, puff your cheeks for tremolo.
Maestro EXPERIMENTAL A duet of your hand and your face: the hand plays the notes — raise it for pitch, slide it sideways to pan, pinch to soften the tone — and your face gives them a voice: open your mouth to sing (openness = volume), shape your lips for the vowel, raise your brows for vibrato, wink for drums, puff your cheeks to growl.
Beatbox EXPERIMENTAL A drum groove under a singing, vowel-morphing voice you steer by tilt — or record your own vocal samples (🎙) that replace the ooh/ah and pitch to the note. Lock the voice to the beat for a chopped vocal rhythm.
Beat Sampler EXPERIMENTAL A Circuit-style step sequencer: record a sample from the mic, drop it on the 16-step grid, and loop it with built-in drums (kick, snare, hats, clap, perc). Per-track mute + tempo.
Voice Amp EXPERIMENTAL Turn the phone into a live megaphone — speak and hear it through your speaker. One big on/off, a volume knob, and a few effects (echo, reverb, robot, radio). Adaptive anti-feedback notches out any howling frequency.
Sensor Instruments · build 30 — back to ericmayers.com
⌂ Lab
AF2 EXPERIMENTAL
—
⚙ Tech
● REC
SPIRAL tap: next mode · hold 10s: end take
▼ key
▲ key
🎻 Sweep the phone through the air to bow · tilt ↔ for pitch · twist (or drag the ↻ wheel) to change key · pads modulate the tone.
⌂ Lab
Hand Synth EXPERIMENTAL
Strings
—
?
Hand Synth — how to play
Point the camera at your hand and shape the air:
Raise / lower your hand → pitch
Thumb ↔ index finger distance → volume (open = louder, together = quiet)
Rotate your hand → tone / brightness
Tap thumb to MIDDLE finger → 👊 kick drum
Tap thumb to RING finger → 🥁 snare drum
Pick the voice (Strings / Guitar / Bass / Lead / Bells) in the toolbar.
Got it — let me play
Don't show this again
✋ Start point the camera at your hand
↺ Flip camera
GPU
voice
Strings Guitar Bass Lead Bells
scale
Maj penta Min penta Blues
Major Minor Dorian
Lydian Mixolydian Hirajoshi Chromatic
range
⌂ Lab
Face Synth EXPERIMENTAL
Tenor
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?
Face Synth — how to play
Look into the camera and sing with your face:
Open your mouth → volume (closed = silence, wide = loud — sing it!)
Tilt your head left / right → pitch — it slides along the scale
😑 Close both eyes (hold a beat) → 🧲 snap to exact notes; open to slide again
Nod up / down → jump an octave up / down (hold your head level at start — that sets neutral)
Turn your head sharply left / right → previous / next voice
Lip shape → vowel: pucker "oo" ↔ relaxed "ah" ↔ wide smile "ee"
Smirk (raise one mouth corner) → pan the sound toward that side
Raise your eyebrows → vibrato + sparkle
😉 Wink left → 👊 kick · wink right → 🥁 snare (two-eye blinks are ignored)
🐡 Puff your cheeks → growl
Got it — let me sing
Don't show this again
😮 Start point the camera at your face
↺ Flip camera
GPU
voice
Soprano Alto Tenor Bass Robot
scale
Maj penta Min penta Blues
Major Minor Dorian
Lydian Mixolydian Hirajoshi Chromatic
range
⌂ Lab
Face Choir EXPERIMENTAL
Choir
—
?
Face Choir — how to play
Your emotion is the harmony. Face the camera and conduct a choir of chords:
Open your mouth → volume — the choir swells as you open wide
Turn your head left / right → walk the chords I–VII in the key
Chin up / down → raise the voicing an octave & brighten / drop it & darken (hold level at start — that sets neutral)
🙂 Smile = major · ☹️ frown = minor · 😗 pucker = sus4
Raise your eyebrows → add a 9th voice (color)
Smirk (one corner only) → shift the chord inversion up / down
😉 Wink left → bass drone on/off · wink right → 🎶 harp strum
🐡 Puff your cheeks → tremolo · tilt your head → shimmer
Got it — let me conduct
Don't show this again
🙂 Start point the camera at your face
↺ Flip camera
GPU
voice
Choir Organ Strings Dream Pad
key
C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B
⌂ Lab
Maestro EXPERIMENTAL
—
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Maestro — how to play
A duet: your hand plays the notes, your face gives them a voice. Get both in frame:
✋ Raise / lower your hand → pitch (snapped to the scale)
✋ Slide your hand left / right → pan
✋ Pinch thumb ↔ index → tone (open = bright, pinched = soft)
😮 Open your mouth → volume — no mouth, no sound
👄 Lip shape → vowel: pucker "oo" ↔ relaxed "ah" ↔ smile "ee"
Raise your eyebrows → vibrato + sparkle
😉 Wink left → 👊 kick · wink right → 🥁 snare (blinks are ignored)
🐡 Puff your cheeks → growl
Runs two trackers at once — happiest on a recent phone. Prop the phone up at arm's length so your face and raised hand both fit.
Got it — let me conduct
Don't show this again
✋😮 Start face and hand both in frame
↺ Flip camera
GPU
scale
Maj penta Min penta Blues
Major Minor Dorian
Lydian Mixolydian Hirajoshi Chromatic
range
⌂ Lab
Beatbox EXPERIMENTAL
—
▶ Play
Enable motion
voice
Off Constant On beat
tempo
groove
Boom-bap Four-on-floor Trap Half-time
scale
Min penta Maj penta Blues Dorian Minor Hirajoshi
vowel
tilt auto-cycle
🎙 vox:
1
2
3
4
● Rec
✕ clear
record vowels · tilt ↕ morphs them · tilt ↔ = pitch
⌂ Lab
Beat Sampler EXPERIMENTAL
100 BPM
🎹 melody
Grand Piano
Electric Piano
Strings
Synth Lead
Organ
Bass
play over the beat →
▶ Play
tempo
● Rec
↺ sound
🗑 clear
edit: KICK
⌂ Lab
Voice Amp EXPERIMENTAL
off
▶ Turn on amplify your voice through the speaker
Volume
🔁 Echo
🏛 Reverb
🤖 Robot
📻 Radio
🎯 Anti-feedback
⌂ Lab
HS2 · Duet Hands EXPERIMENTAL
—
▶ Start allow the camera, then raise both hands
HS2 — a two-handed duet
🫱 Right hand = melody. Raise / lower your hand to change pitch (snapped to the key). Pinch thumb + index together for louder. Rotate the hand for a brighter or darker tone.
🫲 Left hand = chords. Raise / lower to move through the chords of the key. Open your hand to swell the chord; make a fist to mute it.
🎶 Both hands share one key & scale , so the melody always fits the chords.
📸 Best strapped to your chest with the rear camera facing your hands. Use Swap hands if the roles feel reversed.
Got it
🔄 Camera
🤝 Swap hands
GPU
? Help
key
scale
Major Minor
Dorian Mixolydian
Lydian Harmonic minor
🫱 melody
Strings Brass
Reed Saw lead
🫲 chords
Strings Organ
E-piano Warm pad
show hands
⌂ Lab
HS3 · Duet Hands+ EXPERIMENTAL
—
▶ Start allow the camera, then raise both hands
HS3 — a two-handed duet, refined
🫱 Right hand = melody. Raise / lower = pitch (snapped to the key). Spread thumb + index = brighter tone. Rotate the hand = vibrato.
🫲 Left hand = chords. Raise / lower = move through the chords. Make a fist to mute.
✋ Distance = volume: reach a hand away from the camera to get louder (bring it close = softer). Slide left/right to pan & brighten.
🎶 Both hands share one key & scale . Smoother, richer sound with steadier tracking than HS2.
📸 Best chest-mounted with the rear camera facing your hands. Use Swap hands if roles feel reversed.
Got it
🔄 Camera
🤝 Swap hands
GPU
? Help
key
scale
Major Minor
Dorian Mixolydian
Lydian Harmonic minor
🫲 melody
Strings Brass
Reed Saw lead
🫱 chords
Strings Organ
E-piano Warm pad
show hands
⌂ Lab
Touch Harp EXPERIMENTAL
—
key
scale
Major pentatonic Minor pentatonic
Major Minor
Blues Dorian
Hirajoshi Chromatic
voice
Strings Soft
Pluck Bell
🖐 press with several fingers for chords