Odd Ball is a company that makes fun electronic bouncy balls that can be tapped or bounced to produce MIDI sounds. The company is adding new gestures to the device, including rotating, twisting, moving, shaking, and throwing in the air, allowing it to produce sounds in new ways.
With the latest app update, the company even lets you become a DJ at a house party with these gestures. Includes DJ mode with some background tracks and on-screen instructions for gestures on those tracks. When you combine one or more gestures, the app plays sound effects on the track.
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The startup now categorizes gestures into two categories: Triggers (tap, shake, twist), which the company describes as similar to playing notes; and modulators (movement, rotation, air throw), which the company considers knobs on the console.
The strength of the gesture is also important. The app generates sounds based on how hard or fast you spin or shake the ball.
Image Credits: geezer
Pasquale Totaro, the company’s founder and CEO, told TechCrunch that the ball has sensors built into it that the company does not use. However, with a new update, the startup is now taking advantage of that sensor.
“The hardware originally had one motion sensor that we never used, it was just there. The idea was to push for a new firmware that would make this happen at a later date. That’s where we are now. A lot of R&D was needed to unlock all the features. Imagine a trackpad that only recognizes taps. Now you can also zoom, pinch, drag, pan, etc.,” Totaro told TechCrunch via email.
He noted that the team had to put a lot of effort into separating one gesture from another.
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Odd Ball launched with a Kickstarter campaign in 2018, and the company began selling the first version in November 2020. Totaro said the startup wants to make the music creation process easy and fun. He said that the way to make this possible is to play with a ball that comes intuitively to humans.
“Everyone already knows how to bounce, shake and throw a ball, and all of these movements are naturally musical and rhythmic. “The quality of these balls actually breaks down the initial learning barriers that music lovers must overcome when trying to learn an instrument, equipment or software,” he said.
Image Credits: geezer
The company has sold more than 25,000 devices, targeting children and music lovers as its primary buyers. Odd Ball has never raised institutional funding, but has some advisors on its board of directors. This includes Glass Direct founder and Google executive Jamie Murray Wells. Ali Mostoufi, whose me.com Inc. was acquired by Apple in 2008; Former EMI and Warner Bros. Records executive Ted Cohen; and Roy Burstin, former CEO of digital media company Mitu.
Totaro said the company is profitable and plans to expand its product line with two devices in the works. Odd Ball is developing a version of the ball featuring multiple RGB LEDs for a new dimension of interactivity.
Gesture technology is highly adaptable and seeks to expand to other form factors. In particular, Totaro said Odd Ball is building capabilities to make everyday objects useful in the XR/VR sector.