Music in motion

Imagine you could play any instrument with a wave of your hand or a flick of the wrist.

It may sound like wizardry, but wearable technology is creating new pathways for creators of all abilities to shape and interact with both digital and analog music. 

Two undergraduate students in The GAME School at Arizona State University are helping lead the charge while also working to make the technology more affordable and accessible. Ben Chatfield and Brodie Sheridan, both media arts and sciences majors set to graduate this May, won a $15,000 grant at the Venture Devils’ Demo Day event in December 2025, where they pitched their wearable music technology startup, BioSynth Music. 

The grant will fund development of their BioSynth MIDIMIDI is the more commonly used term for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, which allows communication between electronic musical instruments and computer software. Watch, a smartwatch that lets a user shape their instrument’s sound with the motion of their wrist. 

Co-founders Chatfield and Sheridan first connected in Assistant Professor Seth Thorn’s class on synthesis programming, learning how to build instruments out of sound modules, where each piece changes the sound in a different way.

It helped that they were the tallest people in the room, Sheridan joked: “We're both tall, and tall people just have that connection.”

Beyond their shared stature, they continued crossing paths and connecting in other classes taught by Thorn, including Circuit Bending, Advanced Interactive Sound, and Wearable Music. 

Chatfield has said that his favorite ASU course is Thorn’s Wearable Music, which he found valuable enough to take a second time this semester. Sheridan, looking to build skills he could employ outside the classroom, did a directed study with Thorn where he learned how to develop a hardware synthesizer with MIDI connectivity. 

It was their mutual interest in music production and digital experimentation that solidified their friendship.

Sheridan had played saxophone for nearly a decade before focusing his attention on the technical side of producing sound. Chatfield, with a background in guitar, was similarly exploring electronic music production with an emphasis on blending analog and digital technologies.

Their coursework introduced them to concepts like digital signal processing — converting real-world signals into digital data that can be mathematically manipulated — which they could apply directly to their personal projects. As Thorn put it, they were learning “how to make numbers into sound.” 

“Most of the time you just get one or the other — either the low-level programming chops without any musical sensibility, or the opposite. Neither is a great outcome if you’re trying to start a company. In GAME, you get both,” Thorn said about Chatfield and Sheridan’s media arts and sciences program. “You’re learning to make music, think musically and make the back end of a product.

At first, the two were focused only on their individual side projects. Sheridan was building custom guitar pedals for friends, while Chatfield had begun exploring wearable technology. He was particularly interested in watches that could translate motion into digital input with ultra low latency.

Then it occurred to them: What if they merged their efforts? As Sheridan put it to Chatfield, “What if we made my pedals reactive to your watch?” That question marked the beginning of BioSynth Music.

Their initial prototype is a watch-like device that can control sound in real time. It uses MIDI to translate movement into music. 

“(The watch) also has a mode that lets you control your tempo and play patterns of notes based on how you tilt your wrist,” said Chatfield.

The idea is to create living instruments, complete with human imperfections and unpredictability. The company’s name reflects the concept, with “bio” meaning life and “synth” short for synthesizer. 

“There's a chance that, with the MIDI watch, you'll get a sound and you'll never be able to recreate it because of the way that you move,” said Sheridan. “It's like the certain expression that you did, and also I think it's kind of a translation of you yourself.”

Chatfield compared their MIDI Watch to Imogen Heap's MiMu Gloves or Genki’s Wave Ring, but emphasized that their device would be available for a fraction of the cost and much easier to use. The price of one MiMu glove is presently $1,500, while the Wave Ring runs around $350 with much more limited functionality. Both Sheridan and Chatfield noted that the items are frequently sold out or unavailable. 

BioSynth’s target price for their device is between $150 and $250.

“We realized people want this kind of technology,” Sheridan said. “But the people who should have it — students, independent artists, people experimenting — can’t afford it.”

“This could be a gamechanger for DJs, musicians and producers because it is the first affordable, motion-based MIDI controller that is tailored to work with their instruments and gear,” said Chatfield. 

The BioSynth MIDI watch doesn't require a user to know any music theory and intuitively translates different movements into any note on the keyboard. Chatfield and Sheridan emphasized this could open doors for people with physical or cognitive disabilities who may struggle with playing traditional instruments.

“Some people can't really hold a violin … or some people can't hold a guitar, but they do have the ability of some sort of motion,” said Sheridan. “And so whether that be a head movement or an arm movement, they will be making music regardless of what it is. Whatever way that they're interacting with it, it's going to be transformed into expression and musicality.”

The pair took their business concept to the next level by participating in the ASU Venture Devils entrepreneurship program in fall 2025. 

Thorn had introduced Sheridan to student entrepreneurship opportunities via his role as The GAME School liaison to ASU’s J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute, or Edson E+I, and helped the duo refine their pitch and slide deck, passing down knowledge he learned from his own business advisors during the launch of his ASU arts-tech startup company, Matter Squared.

During Venture Devils’ Demo Day, where students can pitch their ideas to potential funders in a competition-style event, Chatfield and Sheridan were awarded $15,000 along with an assigned mentor to help them bring BioSynth Music to life.

While their current focus is making it through graduation, their next priority is refining the circuit boards that will make everything else easier to replicate. With a scalable product, they can turn their focus to the next phase: test-launching the device.

Their plan is to give free working prototypes to local music artists and DJs, who would beta-test the device and offer market feedback. The additional hope is the artists will use them in performances and give the device public exposure.

While collecting market feedback, they will be crowdsourcing additional funding to scale production and pay for advertising. 

As they face the end of their academic journey, Chatfield and Sheridan intend to turn their full attention to their business. 

Their long-term plans include one day offering an array of devices that includes instruments as well as the tools that control them. The MIDI Watch is intended to interface with a synth pedal that is also in development but has taken a back seat to the watch for now. 

Regardless of how the company’s catalog may change, the core of BioSynth Music is a commitment to innovation and community. 

“I have always known that I want to make something that could unite people to a certain degree — something that is creative and that is for people, by people,” said Sheridan.

“We started this business because we were fed up with how slow innovation moves in the world of music technology and we want to be behind the instruments that inspire the next generation,” said Chatfield. “We hope to inspire new types of performers and reduce the barrier of entry for people who want to push the limits of sound design and electronic music.”

They may just be getting started, but their purpose is clear: expanding artistic possibilities and making musical expression accessible to all.