The Booty Drum is a high-tech musical device that, unlike most instruments, isn’t operated by your hands, but by tour butt cheeks ! All you need to do is attach the drum to your behind, start twerking, and let it transform your movements into beats.

The device was created by headphone brand AIAIAI, in an attempt to give their users some “new music to enjoy on their headphones or  on the dance floor.” They wanted to make a unique music track from scratch, using nothing but body movements. So they teamed up with Portuguese electronic musician Branko, professional dancer Twerk Queen Louise, and OWOW, a Dutch design and technology company to create something really unique. Together, the team took the widely popular twerk dance and converted it into an instrument in its own right.

Once firmly attached to the derriere, the Booty Drum records the dancer’s movements via accelerometers. “These movements translate into a lot of unique velocities and directions of movement,” Owow said. “The movements, which are being mapped into unique MIDI values through Arduino hardware and processing software, can in this way be used to trigger samples and create sounds in Ableton. As every single movement sends out a unique set of values, the dancer is able to play around with sounds.”

“The project explores the rich heritage of bass-driven club culture where dancing and booty-shaking are integral elements,” the makers further explained. “We want to see if it’s possible to change the perception of twerking through placing it in a technology-driven, creative context and letting the dance do the talking.”

Source: AIAIAI