What are some of your fav devices / controllers for beginning or low budget installations?
I see the Azure Kinect seems to have replaced the older Xbox model, but it seems to be hard to find and re-sales (ebay, 3rd party, etc) are all very inflated prices…Are the older versions even still worth buying?
I was also interested in trying Leap Motion for small scale / hand interactions (instead of full body), but since they are no longer in business, I’m wondering if there’s something better or more versatile to take its place?
Leap is still in business, but they’re called UltraLeap now. There are links to buy their controllers here: https://www.ultraleap.com/product/leap-motion-controller/#pricingandlicensing I have heard that their licensing has gotten more complicated recently, so you may need to check how that applies to your project.
I’ve only really used them for testing and development in TouchDesigner - I haven’t built any real-world applications with them. They’ve definitely got a lot more detailed hand tracking than the Kinect Azure, but they can also only track one pair of hands and can be a little slow to lock on.
I don’t really know much about the Stereo IR 170 models. It says that they use the same tracking software, which I would assume means that it would work with TouchDesigner like the Motion Controllers do, but I can’t say for certain without a little more research.
Gotcha - I’m wondering if there is an “official” TD list of supported devices like this that I’m missing…?
Different versions of RealSense, LeapMotion, Kinect, etc…Knowing what devices are / are not currently supported would be super helpful…
I will prob pick up the older version of the Leap and experiment with that. I have zero programming experience and just need something that will plug / play with a TD CHOP / TOP
Unfortunately it’s not really possible to list every model and version of these devices as things change too quickly and we only have access to a limited selection to test them ourselves.
If you’re curious about support for a specific device model, the best approach is generally to post in the forums as you’ve done and often someone in the community or on the dev team can confirm for you.
I’ve got a couple of the older leap controllers on my desk and they are quite easy to use. You just need to install the leap driver on your machine and plug them in and they’ll show up automatically in the Leap CHOP.
Hello.
For my part I start with the Akai APC mini. image|690x431
Low price : ~ 60€
I’ve been using it for 4 years.
It connects very well, you can easily map buttons with midiin chops and change their color with midiout.
I use it as much for performances in festivals as for working on personal projects.
I advise you.
The only flaw that I have found with experience is the absence of a circular fader like the akai midimix in the next image, which can be interesting for certain animations. On another side what is good is that it has a lot of buttons (9x9 matrix (81)) which leaves room for a lot of possibilities for your change of animations, and the 8 sliders for smooth transitions are very interesting.
After it is always questions of preference and objective, but I find that the akai brand is not expensive and very interesting for beginners.
