In the drive towards a more integrated and intuitive technology, a team of Japanese musicians and interactive designers have developed SIGMA, a multi-sensory hands free musical and visual instrument which translates hand and facial movement into audio and visual stimuli.

Designed in collaboration with beat boxer Ryo Fujimoto, otherwise known as Humanelectro, and Funktronic Labs, the device – a pair of gloves fitted with sensors – can track heart rate, muscle movement and finger positioning. Capable of detecting even the smallest gestures, it converts this data directly into audio and visual output.

The technicians behind SIGMA, Eddie Lee, from Funktronic Labs, and designer Takuma Nakata created this instrument using a leap motion controller, a new kind of user interface that detects movement and allows for very precise tracking of human motions. As we've already discovered with Telekinetic, by Devine Lu Linvega, leap motion technology opens up entirely new possibilities for creating completely different kinds of applications that are able to be controlled by finger and hand gestures.