musicBottles Hiroshi Ishii, Ali Mazalek, Jay Lee, Rich Fletcher, Joe Paradiso
musicBottles introduces a tangible interface that deploys bottles as containers and controls for digital information. The system consists of a specially designed table and three corked bottles that "contain" the sounds of the violin, the cello and the piano in Edouard Lalo's Piano Trio in C Minor, Op. 7. Custom-designed electromagnetic tags embedded in the bottles enable each one to be wirelessly identified. The opening and closing of a bottle is also detected. When a bottle is placed onto the stage area of the table and the cork is removed, the corresponding instrument becomes audible. A pattern of colored light is rear-projected onto the table's translucent surface to reflect changes in pitch and volume. The interface allows users to structure the experience of the musical composition by physically manipulating the different sound tracks.