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Home / News / Machina MIDI coat makes music and keeps you dry

Machina MIDI coat makes music and keeps you dry

Who needs a conventional MIDI controller when you can wear one?

We’re usually happy if a coat just keeps us warm and dry – but clearly that isn’t enough for Machina, a company from Santa Monica that specialises in wearable technology.

Known as the MIDI Controller Jacket MJ v1.0, this sleek black rain-defender allows the wearer to create and control music with body movement via the help of a bespoke app. It uses sensors including accelerometer for detecting your arm’s acceleration and three sensors for detecting the position of your finger.

Not only that, it comes with a joystick, four buttons for pressing and a flex sensor, all of which can be configured to control what you want. A perfectly harmonious accompaniment for this peculiar instrument, we think. Or, indeed, any of these wearable music gadgets.

The MIDI – short for musical instrument digital interface – Controller Jacket, has been designed to ensure the sensors and other gadgetry does not affect comfort and the coat’s aesthetics. It’s quite a way short of its US$74,500 Kickstarter goal at time of writing – so head on over with your wallet at the ready if you like the sound of it. Get it? “Sound” of it. Oh, please yourselves.

[Kickstarter via Designboom]

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Profile image of Dan Grabham Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home