Concept
This project takes inspiration from the dual-manual organ, an instrument that engages both the hands and feet to create layered musical expression. Similarly, I wanted to explore how interaction not only through hands can become a creative control method. I built a pedal-activated LED system, allowing the user to light up different colors by stepping instead of using their hands. The choice of red, yellow, and green LEDs draws directly from the universal language of traffic lights, symbolizing stop, pause, and go, which could creates a visual rhythm that also parallels musical tempo. The pedal thus becomes both a practical switch and a metaphor for coordination and rhythm through movement.
Image & Video Documentations
Video(Download)
Future Improvements
Building this project helped me better understand how simple sensors and physical actions can create meaningful interaction. The foot-controlled design felt intuitive and playful, emphasizing how movement can extend beyond the hands in creative electronics. However, I also noticed that the current version only allows a binary on-off behavior. In the future, I’d like to make it more expressive, for example, by integrating pressure sensors so that the brightness or color changes based on how hard the pedal is pressed, or adding a fade-in/out animation for a smoother, more musical response. Another possible direction is to connect the pedal to sound or musical output, letting each color correspond to a tone similar to the dual-keyboard organ.