Odd Ball is a company that makes bouncy, fun electronic balls. You can generate MIDI sounds by tapping or bouncing the ball. The company is adding new gestures to the device, including spins, twists, moves, shakes, and air throws, allowing you to generate sounds in new ways.
With the latest app update, the company now lets you become a DJ at your home party with these gestures. This includes a DJ mode with several background tracks and on-screen instructions for gestures for that track. When you combine one or more gestures, the app plays a sound effect on top of the track.
Image credit: Oddball
The company currently divides gestures into two categories. One is Triggers (Tap, Shake, Twist), which the company describes as similar to playing musical notes. The modulators (movement, rotation, air throw) are considered by the company to be knobs on the console.
The strength of your gestures is also important. The app generates sounds based on how hard and fast you spin or shake the ball.
Image credit: Oddball
Pasquale Totaro, the company's founder and CEO, told TechCrunch that the ball has built-in sensors that the company doesn't use. But with a new update, the startup is now making use of that sensor.
“The hardware originally had one motion sensor that we never used and just sat there. The idea was that we would later push new firmware that would make it happen. That's where we are now. BTW. It took a lot of R&D to make all the features available. Imagine a trackpad that only recognized taps. Now it can zoom, pinch, drag, pan, etc. also works,” Totaro told TechCrunch via email.
He said teams have to spend a lot of effort distinguishing one gesture from another.
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Odd Ball started with a Kickstarter campaign in 2018 and began selling the first version in November 2020. According to Totaro, the startup wanted to make the music production process easy and fun. He said playing with a ball, which humans intuitively think of, is a way to achieve that.
“Everyone already knows how to bounce, swing and throw a ball, and all these movements are naturally already musical and rhythmic. “It essentially breaks down the initial learning barrier that people have to overcome when trying to learn an instrument, device or software,” he said.
Image credit: Oddball
The company has sold more than 25,000 devices, with the primary buyers being children and music lovers. Oddball has not raised funding from institutional investors, but has several advisors on its board of directors. That includes Glass Direct founder and his Google executive colleague Jamie Murray Wells. Ali Mostoufi's startup me.com Inc. was acquired by Apple in 2008. former EMI and Warner Bros. Records executive Ted Cohen; and Roy Burstyn, former CEO of digital media company Mitu.
Totaro said the company is profitable and is looking to expand its product line with two devices in development. Odd Ball is working on a version of the ball with multiple RGB LEDs to enable new interaction dimensions.
Its gesture technology is adaptable and we are considering expanding it to other form factors. Notably, Totaro said Odd Byall is building functionality that will make everyday objects useful in his XR/VR field.