Sensel let us know that their Sensel Morph – originally developed via a crowdfunding campaign – is now available to order.
The Sensel Morph features a patented Pressure Grid surface that detects numerous contact touch points, such as fingers, paintbrushes and even drumsticks. The surface can be customized with overlays, so that it can be used as a MIDI controller, video editor, drum set, game controller, keyboard, piano, art tablet and more.
For even deeper integration, the Developer’s Cable can connect the Morph to any UART-supported circuit board.
Features:
- 10 overlays – Thanks to the Morph’s revolutionary overlays, the device can take various
forms including. - Standalone – Without an overlay, the Morph can be used as a giant multi-touch trackpad,
painting surface, or custom interface using Sensel’s open source API. - USB rechargeable battery allows creativity anywhere at any time.
- Precise Tracking – The Morph’s precise position, force, and shape measurements for each
contact point allow up to 16 points of contact with individual pressure levels. - The device can capture a rich force-image with over 20,000 sensors and 32,000 levels of pressure per contact.
- Because the device senses pressure instead of conductivity, it can detect any object or tool – from a gloved finger to a paint brush.
- Works with Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android.
- With Bluetooth LE, USB, and Serial connectivity, the Morph can pair with a computer, phone, tablet, and even an Arduino/Raspberry Pi.
Pricing and Availability
The Sensel Morph is available for US $299?.
This looks to be a great product at a good price, but I’m really disapointed in the music overlays. Multitouch for me is a place to go beyond a piano keyboard or a 16 grid + 8 macro dials. I mean I was hoping for a cut price Linnstrument … The piano overlay is unexciting in that we HAVE piano keyboard controllers, galore, and for piano multitouch we also have a CME xKey. Very cheap.
The 16 pads and 8 macros is up against every 16 pad and 8 macros controller we have lying around our studios already. Anyone owning a KMI QuNeo will feel they have a fancier version of this perhaps.
When the Morph was first announced there was a Linnstrument format skin, or at least a fretboard emulation. A grid of 4ths overlay would surely be more interesting of a multitouch intrument – not a groundbreaker but more flexible than an octave of piano keys or a drumpad grid.
There’s vague memtion of an overlay designer, so perhaps when that becomes available the product might become more compelling as an instrument for me.
So far – excellent technology, excellent price, let down by unimaginative overlays IMO.
From briefly playing with it at Moogfest, Sensel’s tech seems more sensitive than the Quneo from somewhat distant memory, though the K-Board Pro seemed to feel substantially better than the Quneo.