Kurv – the stringless guitar – launches on Kickstarter

The Kurv is a ‘stringless’ digital guitar that allows anyone to learn and play songs using touch, motion and gestures. The patent-pending Kurv was developed by a pioneering team with experience in electronic music research, artificial intelligence and product design.

 

Watch the Kurv in action, donate, and find out more on Kickstarter

Using research from Goldsmiths, University of London, the device combines advanced music synthesis software, sensor technologies and machine learning to enable an unprecedented level of ‘new musical expression’.

How does it work?

The Kurv consists of two parts – a button board where you press chords and notes, and a pick. The pick contains a sensor that recognises strumming movements, just like playing a normal guitar.

The Kurv has acoustic, electric and bass guitars, and comes with an app for iPhone or iPad, which connects via Bluetooth so there are no wires in the way of rocking out.

Dr Mick Grierson (Goldsmiths' Department of Computing), Kurv co-founder says: “For the first time, we can run advanced music synthesis engines on your mobile phone. When you combine this power with wearable technologies and machine learning, you can develop new musical instruments that were considered science fiction only a few years ago.  

The guitar is one of the most popular and best selling musical instruments in the world, but learning the instrument takes time, commitment and is tough on the hands. The design of the Kurv started by looking at the ergonomics of hands.

Kurv co-designer Tania Fauvel, who comes from a background in design and body-scanning, says: “We started by looking at large surveys of people's hands and found that our fingers can comfortably touch eight distinct places on our palms. In music, there are eight notes in an Octave, eight notes in a Scale and eight chords in a Key.”

John Kennedy, Co-Founder of Kurv and former President of Universal Music International, says: “Many people who listen to music aspire not just to be passive listeners, but would like to be playing as well. Many people buy a guitar and work on it for four weeks and then it sits in the corner as a piece of furniture. We hope the Kurv can change that.”

For those who would like to create new musical instruments using the Kurv – whether it is a snare drum, viola or an Indonesian angklung – a software development kit is also being released.

Dr Mick Grierson’s work on the Kurv forms part of a long-term Goldsmiths-led and European Commission-funded project called Rapid Mix – a consortium of computer scientists devoting years of research to the design and evaluation of wearable human-computer interfaces in creative fields such as computer games and music. He’s also the research lead on SoundLab, a project testing out which digital music devices and apps can help people with learning disabilities make the music they want to make.

The Kurv is compatible with devices running iOS 8 or later (must have Bluetooth 4.0, BLE). It weighs just 56g in total and has a battery life of more than five hours with continuous use.

 

For more information on Kurv visit:
facebook.com/kurvguitar  
twitter.com/kurvguitar
kurvguitar.com

 

Kurv is available on Kickstarter now with early bird prices starting at £120/$179.