Face Visualizer project turns us all into meat puppets

Engadget Japan had the chance to sit down with sound artist, Daito Manabe, front man to the Face Visualizer designed by Masaki Teruoka and built by Katsuhiko Harada. No, the music is not controlled by facial contortions. Rather, Daito-san's face is twisted to the music via electrical-pulse stimulation -- 10 channels in total, 8 to control his facial expressions, 2 to keep the music and face in sync. Take away quote from our Q&A:

Q: Does it hurt?
A: Yes. Depends on the part, but it's like the stinging of needles. But the worst part is not the pain, some patterns deter my vision, sometimes I cannot breath. The pulse makes me see nonexistent white light, and green stripes.

Hot. Video and controlling machinery found after the break.

[Orpheus @ Oct 28th 2008 6:30AM]

And you would want to do this why?

[Coolty @ Oct 28th 2008 3:24PM]

Hey Baby, wanna destroy all humans?

[rock99rock @ Oct 28th 2008 10:29AM]

Well, if you cant make the bitter beer face under your own power...

[Erb @ Oct 28th 2008 6:34AM]

Anyone else see accidental musical death in this guys future?

[Wulile @ Oct 28th 2008 1:10PM]

Only if he hooks it up to his junk, wait... was there a link up there for ordering this stuff?

[Gilbert Tang @ Oct 28th 2008 6:35AM]

That is the exact opposite of Bell's Palsy.

[Erb @ Oct 28th 2008 6:36AM]

Just imaging him playing DragonForce - Through The Fire And Flames >:)

[Fome @ Oct 28th 2008 6:37AM]

No pain, no gain

[Atropos @ Oct 28th 2008 6:39AM]

The "gain" here being...

...

Wait, why the hell is he doing this again?

[Gast @ Oct 28th 2008 7:35AM]

I'd guess about -38db.

[Brad @ Oct 28th 2008 2:18PM]

This is an important lesson for everyone.

If someone ever utters the phrase "It's okay, I'm an ARTIST, I know what I'm doing" then you should exit as quickly as possible. Especially if it involves electrodes and your face.

[James @ Oct 28th 2008 3:44PM]

Better than electrodes on his balls.

[Scotty Doo @ Oct 28th 2008 6:46AM]

Insane in da membrane..

[onepinksheep @ Oct 28th 2008 7:01AM]

It's all clear now. No wonder recent times has seen the proliferation of iPods and other PMPs — it's all part of the master plan of our future robotic overlords to control us meatbags with music!

[JMMGoalster @ Oct 28th 2008 8:53AM]

+1 for the KotoR reference

[LondonConsultant @ Oct 28th 2008 7:02AM]

Yep, the video made me laugh...

[puma @ Oct 28th 2008 7:03AM]

Epic.

[absinthe party @ Oct 28th 2008 7:18AM]

I'm pretty sure I can do the exact same thing with 'shrooms and a Winamp equalizer visual circa 1998.

[John @ Oct 28th 2008 7:23AM]

Haha, good times......goooood times.....


*stares off into space*

[Dan @ Oct 29th 2008 2:31PM]

You get a bonus point for the handle.

[shapey @ Oct 28th 2008 7:29AM]

hmmm... strange. i like it.

[winterfreez @ Oct 28th 2008 7:38AM]

I can't help but think that this is a cracked out version of the Juicy Fruit commercial "I learned to speak bee..."

LOL, still cracks me up!

[Eric @ Oct 28th 2008 7:39AM]

did any one else see this on Gizmodo about a week ago?

[James @ Oct 28th 2008 3:46PM]

No because nobody here reads gizmodo

[Aguiluz @ Oct 28th 2008 7:45AM]

Looks like I'm going to have nightmares tonight....









MOMMY!!!

[SOOPERGOOMAN @ Oct 28th 2008 8:14AM]

I like pointless art. I would try this but it would prolly make my tourettes come back. ( having cured it myself with LSD 15 years ago)

[Steve @ Oct 28th 2008 8:27AM]

After the initial wtf factor wore off, it made me smile ... in fact it's still got me smiling. =]

[John @ Oct 28th 2008 8:59AM]

He'll win nerd of the year, no question. How can you beat that?

[SlyckStyx @ Oct 28th 2008 9:18AM]

reverse beat box

[Shane @ Oct 28th 2008 9:29AM]

Reminds me of something from "Fringe".

[Dan Fruzzetti @ Oct 28th 2008 10:24AM]

Yeah, except this is much, much better acted.

[huh @ Oct 28th 2008 9:35AM]

This would be perfect for making all those people who can't dance feel the groove.

[Dan Fruzzetti @ Oct 28th 2008 10:21AM]

I zapped myself in much the same way once. I was running a medium power amplifier pushing music out of four speakers and I ran a ground wire out to a pipe. The wire hadn't been stripped at the end, so I put it in my mouth to strip it. When I bit down, with the wire in the back left area of my teeth, I saw whitish bluish shining and experienced weirdly intense pain.

But here's the interesting part: the whitish-bluish that I saw went way, way beyond my normal field of vision. It makes me wonder if we won't in the near future be able to augment our realities with internal displays that harness this extra-FOV space using electrical signals, or just by conditioning the brain to see it. Imagine being able to see context-related images outside your normal field of vision, so any internalized "head-up display" you had would be outside your normal vision area, without disturbing it in the least.

Man, that would be cool. And the shock is how I got the idea.

[Reece @ Oct 28th 2008 10:25AM]

...

wut?

[Ladderless @ Oct 28th 2008 10:27AM]

No, seriously - Now we all know what Dr. Emilio Lizardo was doing.

[Kali4 @ Oct 28th 2008 10:37AM]

Were you in on SUPERGOOMAN's tourettes experiment while you did that?

[Lowest Ranked @ Oct 28th 2008 12:02PM]

Dan,

What was happening was the electric surge of electrons were racing through the nuerons in your brain behind the optic nerve and just before your 'sight' was interpereted by your brain, but after the retina had received the information and passed it on, giving it an translucent overlay effect.

Its a well known phenomenon.

[jason @ Oct 28th 2008 1:32PM]

...

You were hanging a clock at the time, and the shock caused you to slip off of the toilet, hitting your head on the sink, and causing you to come up with the flux capacitor... which makes time travel possible.

[Dan Fruzzetti @ Oct 28th 2008 10:22AM]

Yeah.. Imagine playing "Face Hero III"

[BlackB @ Oct 28th 2008 11:53AM]

No offense really. but it looks like with every beep a massive shot is pierced up his back.

[srue @ Oct 28th 2008 12:46PM]

I love that song. We danced to it at my wedding.

[ssoltero @ Oct 28th 2008 2:05PM]

HAHA! It's like what Eddie Murphy did to Morgan Fairchild in "Holy Man" only he's electrocuting himself to the beat.

[absurdio @ Oct 28th 2008 8:29PM]

Dude should really try dancing, instead.

[Arthur Elsenaar @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:00AM]

For more of this, check out my pioneering work into Algorithmic Facial Choreography here: http://artifacial.org and also some clips at youtube here: http://uk.youtube.com/user/artelse

Have fun.

[kuras @ Nov 6th 2008 5:14PM]

haha! someone actually made a parody on it!!! I wondered if this would happen to daito!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DwnOPLoiRQ

[Kuras @ Nov 6th 2008 11:31PM]

UPDATED:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrLwd1lSczI

[Scofield @ Nov 11th 2008 7:57PM]

I thought they killed this guy last week on the episode of Prison Break.

[Mason @ Nov 13th 2008 8:49PM]

This could be a very good "enhanced interrogation" tactic... I'm gonna go talk to my supervisor.

[Borismus @ Jan 2nd 2009 7:42AM]

Keep your face in shape with these all new Beatox treatments. Coming soon to all music stores near you.