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KNUCON

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Submitted By: Mick Young

Elevator Pitch

KNUCON

Brass-knuckle-shaped wearable MIDI controller blending gesture control, pressure sensing, and mic tracking to expand live performance dimensions through multi-channel expressive data.

Product Description

An brass-knuckle-shaped wearable MIDI controller designed to dramatically expand the creative dimensions of live musical performance. The hardware features a robust sensor suite—including an FRS pressure sensor, a 6-axis gyroscope, a 3-axis magnetometer, a pitch-and-loudness-tracking microphone, and three tactile control buttons—all paired with an OLED display that brings a live animated cat avatar to life, reacting dynamically in real-time to the performer’s movements and playing state.

The entire system is divided into two parts: a wireless handheld controller and a matching receiver unit. Currently in its prototype stage, the hardware and software for the handheld controller are fully completed and operational, while the receiver hardware is currently in the manufacturing and prototyping phase.

How It’s Innovative

Unique Stage Form Factor and Interaction: Breaking away from traditional desktop or ring limitations, it adopts a brass-knuckle-inspired wearable design that translates natural stage body movements into multi-channel music control signals.

High-Density Multi-Dimensional Sensor Fusion: Integrating a 6-axis gyroscope, magnetometer, pressure sensor, microphone, and buttons into an ultra-compact footprint, allowing a single hand to simultaneously capture and output deep, multi-vector control data.

Balanced Architecture of Freedom and Stability: Utilizing a modular design with a wireless handheld unit and a dedicated receiver, ensuring freedom of movement on stage while maintaining low latency and high reliability.

Most Inspiring Use Cases

I use my own hardware in live visual performances. While a single hand can control at most 4 faders, I can use this controller to simultaneously manage 8 to 10 sets of data that don’t require surgical precision. It makes the performance vastly richer while remaining completely controllable.

Expansion Plans

## Expansion Plans

### 1. Multi-Device Mesh & Network Architecture (ESP-NOW Scaling)

* **Multi-to-Multi Networking:** Capitalizing on the peer-to-peer capabilities of ESP-NOW, software updates will introduce robust multi-to-multi transmission and reception support. This configuration has already been successfully validated in live performance environments with a 2-transmitter to 2-receiver setup.
* **Collaborative Performance Ecosystem:** This expansion enables multiple performers on stage to stream and cross-route expressive data simultaneously, turning individual controllers into a synchronized, interconnected performance network.

### 2. Form Factor Diversification (Hardware Lineup Expansion)

* **New Ergonomic Form Factors:** While maintaining the core electronic architecture, future hardware variants are currently in development to suit different performance styles—beginning with a wristband controller.
* **Backward Compatibility:** All future controllers will remain fully compatible with the existing receiver ecosystem, ensuring that early adopters can seamlessly integrate new input devices without replacing their core hardware setup.

Commercialization

I will finalize pre-production optimizations before the end of the year. However, since this is my first product, I plan to run a small-batch trial production first before considering any subsequent manufacturing.