Casio's expressive guitar strap controller was inspired by a chopstick case

Surprise! Casio has something unexpected — Dimension Shifter, a spring-powered expressive wireless controller that attaches to your guitar strap. And it was the invention of one employee, inspired by his kid’s school-lunch retracting chopstick and cutlery case.

Before we even talk about this, watch the video, featuring engineer and inventor Leo Fujii. This is just the kind of innovation we need more of, and it’s thanks to Casio supporting independent initiative by their employees, as he explains.

The whole idea started with the cutlery case and some rubber bands.

It’s an invention story, a prototyping story, an expressive instrument story, and an accessibility story. And it tells you something of the support he needed from Casio — plus a lot of perseverance — to make this a reality. Nothing against Casio’s recent products, but there’s just such a thrill of seeing that familiar logo on top of some wild idea again. (This is the Casio name that was once on things like a transmitter watch with a built-in antenna and FM broadcasting capability.) So it’s great that this went from a personal vision to a shared vision and team effort.

Okay, how does it actually work?

Once you add the transmitter to your strap, you can tug and compress built-in springs as you pull your guitar away from your body — it really is like having something in place of the B-Bender and the like. That kind of gesture has the advantage of being natural to a strap-on instrument, too. (Come to think of it, yes, you could apply this to a keytar, too. Insert keytar joke here if you must.)

The transmitter unit itself allows you to adjust tension, control how the expression is sent (including invert), and includes a HOLD (freeze) function.

The control signal is sent wirelessly over Bluetooth to a receiver, which translates that expressive signal to effects parameters.

You don’t need specialized pedal hardware, either — the receiver has a TRS jack and there’s even a slide switch so you can cope with the lack of TRS pinout standardization across manufacturers.

Details:

https://www.casio.com/us/dimensionshifter/product.DN-SE10

So I agree with Casio’s research — as far as I know, this is a first. I’m sure someone or other duct-taped an accelerometer or an IR sensor to a guitar strap — it’s right there. But I’ve never seen anyone use this kind of spring adaptation even in a one-off, let alone in a finished product. (If I’m wrong, CDM would be the one place to find a reader who knows otherwise.)

Already one example of people thinking about the guitar strap as controller — Shankar Barua sends his project from 2007:

Spring-based or retractable mechanisms for expression as a concept aren’t new; the obvious example is the 2000 game controller Gametrak by Elliott Myers. (Speaking of household inspiration, he was inspired by a retractable washing line in a hotel!) That 3D controller uses a retractable line (as opposed to the strings here), but you can check a cross-platform library, wireless mod, early guide to PC use, and more recent work by David Goldberg. In the end, it’s better known for its use in hacks and mods than it was in its original game application. (I recall there being some kind of virtual golf arrangement. The art pieces were cooler — and probably better understood Myers’ original idea!)

Here’s the original controller’s history:

Fujii-san talks about the B-Bender, so here’s a good explanation of how it’s played — and why that does mean that there’s a traditional precedent for this idea:

Here Brad Paisley demonstrates playing his custom G-bender — for more of the 70s take on how to add expression. What’s funny to me is, as a non-guitarist, I know that gesture’s sound from records. The design does impact the gesture, which is why this area of instrument design is so endlessly fascinating.

Back to the Dimension Shifter, if you’re curious what it sounds like, Casio has already posted a couple of artist videos. It’ll be interesting to see if this picks up in the USA.

And whether it’s for you or not, it’s a great reminder that inspiration — especially for mechanical design — is everywhere.

These are quite nice performances. I also appreciate that there isn’t some obvious, gimmicky thing in the way (maybe you should even be able to turn the LEDs off). The gestures don’t seem forced or strange, either. (How many videos have we seen where someone was doing something that seemed really artificial? There’s some fun to that, but it can also take you out of the music.)