At the beginning the aim of the project is to build a glove that control a VJ-ing programme named Arkaos. I wanted to do this because I use a lot of VJ-ing programmes and I have figured out that none of that I have used offer the possibility of being controlled whilst standing up, away from the computer. I looked into a few different ways, of how it might be possible to control a piece of VJ-ing software whilst standing up performing.
At first I thought that it would be nice to have some kind of control that interacts with a projection screen, e.g. a Bluetooth control, which would interact with the software. For the software that I wanted to use this was not possible to do, as there is no way of telling it to react to the movements of a Bluetooth control. Another idea was to try and get the software to work with a midi keyboard, and a computer keyboard, so I thought that maybe I should make something that would work with those two devices. Using Arkaos it is easy to map any computer keyboard, but I could not find any way of using a midi signal or keyboard to my advantage.
As it is so easy to map any key on a normal computer keyboard to any action in Arkaos, I looked into creating a wearable control. As you have to use your fingers to control keys, the control had to be based around the wrist/hand. 
At first I thought it would be nice to have a keyboard in the arm of a jumper, with an entire keyboard sewn in. I made several attempts at this using a flexible keyboard, which did not turn out so well. I then turned to my backup plan of having the keyboard embedded into a glove.
Development
Using the USB flexible keyboard, I pre mapped specific keys using Arkaos, and then set about cutting open the board, so that I could use the keys. I mapped four keys that were most comfortable to use with one hand. The keys I chose were: 4, F5, 7, and I. If you put your hand on these keys, you will see that they are perfect for an outstretched hand. I then had the problem of finding the materials to make the glove. First of all, I had the problem of cutting open the keyboard. My original idea was to place under each finger a key but this turned out to be impossible because the inside of the keyboard shows a plastic circuit where all the keys are connected to each other. It was impossible for me to cut only a single key so I decided to use the entire circuit.
The problem appeared when I have realized that the keyboard was too big to fit into a glove.
The only solution was to make a proper glove to reach the size of the circuit. Thanks to the flexibility of the keyboard I was able to bend the circuit and wrap my hand inside it.
Unfortunately I couldn’t made a normal glove where all the fingers are separated so I have managed to made one that can wrap the whole hand.
Technical preparation
• From the keyboard I have cut the selected keys and I have stick them back over the circuit, with some super glue.
• I have fixed the circuit around my hand with some cello tape, but it was really uncomfortable because the bottom part of the hand wasn’t stable and some of the keys couldn’t make contact.
• I have stuck a piece of cardboard in the bottom part to make it more stable on surfaces and to let easily work the keys.
• To build the glove I have cut an arm from a jumper, to cover the outside and the inside part of the circuit.
• Wrapping the circuit with the arm it is been quite tricky but at the end I found out a nice way to fold it properly.
• I didn’t know how to sew, so after few attempts I found out that the super glue could fix properly even this kind of material.
The glove is quite comfortable and the keys are really sensitive. Even if it is limited to only four keys, it has turned out to be a useful object to control Arkaos.
It is possible to connect more then one keyboard and while one hand can control the software, the other can move around into the glove, still giving inputs to the video. Obviously there are a lot of devices like that but none is built properly for VJ ing software. Building this one made me realise that I should probably try to improve this device.
At the beginning I was looking forward to build something that can control a video performance not from the stage but from the front side of the projection.
But this would have involved the construction of a similar device connected by Bluetooth.
Unfortunately I couldn’t find any flexible Bluetooth keyboard.
The idea is to give control even to the people that assist the show and let them interact with the installation.
The possibility can be very wide thanks to the multi connectivity of this software that is used most by Vj’s.
