SENSOR FRAME CORP.
The Video harp may get the award for the strangest midi controller shown at NAMM, and is an optically scanned midi controller that converts moving images of the fingers into music. Featuring it's own 68000 microprocessor, the VideoHarp has a 4 line by 40 character backlit "super-twisted-nematic" LCD display, internal battery backup RAM, and a Tandy 3.5" 200K (not a typo) external floppy disk drive.
In a nutshell, mirrors are used to bend the light path so that both playing surfaces can be scanned by a single rectangular sensor. Fingers placed against the playing surface block light from the light source, creating a shadow image on the sensor after being focused by a lens system. Proprietary scanning algorithms convert the image into finger positions, velocities, thicknesses, and interfinger distances.
These properties are subsequently converted into midi codes that are sent to an external device.
VIDEOHARP - Approx $9000.
