A set of miniature skin electrodes are strapped onto a human subject, positioned over the muscle groups to be controlled. These electrodes receive their input from the DEMON's switching processor, which channelizes incoming MIDI events by note numbers and directs the analog signals to their own pair of electrodes; MIDI note velocities determine the strength of the signal sent to a given muscle group. The system is powered by a set of belt-mounted gel cell batteries.

The DEMON is programmable and recognizes MIDI program change commands. This means its internal configuration (MIDI note/channel assignments, velocity/ voltage curves, continuous controller assignments, etc...) can be instantly changed at any time during its use with the press of a button on the master controller.

The DEMON system is expandable to allow for demanding applications utilizing complex electrode arrays - up to 128 separate electrodes can be triggered with one controller. In addition, the DEMON wireless MIDI receiver is tunable, to allow for multiple DEMONs to be implemented simultaneously, if necessary.

The DEMON can be triggered "live" by a human being playing a MIDI controller (keyboard or electronic drum trigger) or from a MIDI sequencer. The "live" mode allows realtime control of the subject for performance or experimental purposes. The sequenced mode allows a fully-edited, preprogrammed set of body movements to be executed flawlessly every time. Both modes allow the use of continuous controllers for sweeping voltages between programmable electrode sets.

A Myriad of Commercial Applications:

• Choregraphy for stage and theater
• Physical Therapy
• Military Personnel Training
• Aerobic Exercise Regimens, sans trainer
• Ensuring maximum efficiency of human personnel in repetitive endeavors (assembly-line, fast food, etc.)
• Performance Art
• Entertainment - install on the family dog and make it walk backwards!
• Cybersex

Our researchers are conducting experiments using the DEMON connected in tandem with Ed Severinghaus' BodySynth(tm) system (which transforms movements, gestures, and other muscle efforts into MIDI events). With the two units used simultaneously, an arm movement will trigger the BodySynth to create a MIDI note, which, when fed into the input of the DEMON, will trigger another body movement (a leg movement, for example). To simplify: One movement begets another.

Although limited in its usefulness, this configuration has nevertheless had some interesting (and sometimes amusing) applications:

• The BodySynth mounted on one subject triggers the DEMON mounted to a second subject - this configuration creates perfect electronic puppetry! It can also create extremely humorous results if the subjects are of different species...
• When both systems are mounted to the same subject, interesting results have been obtained by:
  • Mapping one part of the body's control signals to another part's movement triggers (as outlined above). This can create some very amusing and complex "dances"!
  • Mapping a body part's control signals to its own movement trigger. This can be dangerous if proper attention isn't paid to voltage threshold levels, because an arm movement triggering another movement of the same muscle group can twist the arm right out of the socket if there is more than a 75% feedback loop. This procedure is not recommended.