Possibilities for the digital baton as a general-purpose gestural interface

This paper describes issues and results from the design and use of the Digital Baton, a new interface for real-time gestural control. Its construction was originally motivated by the need for a new instrument on which to perform computer music, and it was designed to replicate as closely as possible the feel of a traditional conducting baton. However, it has unexpectedly become a model for the design of new interfaces and digital objects, and is currently being used to record data for analysis in gesture-recognition research. Some preliminary results and future research areas are discussed at the end.