The purpose of the dynamic drum trigger is for the user to be able to essentially wear a drum kit that was able to mimic the function of an acoustic drum set in that it was able to change pitch, and can be tuned to any note that the user would choose. This happens though sensors which detect the impact of the strike of the drum stick. The change in resistance goes to an Arduino, a microprocessor, which has an Xbee that transmits the readings wirelessly. The readings then go through Max MSP, a graphical programming environment, where a certain spectrum of the reading gets matched with a drum sample, thus triggering the drum sample to play through the laptop speaker.

By the end, there were 6 drum triggers (1 snare, 1 ride, 1 tom, 1 hi-hat, 1 hi-hat pedal and 1 bass drum). The snare, ride, hi-hat, and tom had piezo pickups which measured the impact of the drum stick on the head on the trigger. In the middle of these triggers there is a piece of copper attached to a capacitive touch sensor which when touched changes the fundamental note of the drum sample when triggered. The hi-hat pedal and bass drum used touch sensors that changes resistance when stepped on. The triggers themselves are made from linoleum and has an HDPE head covering them where the stick would strike. The triggers are also mounted to a larger piece of HDPE which would be strapped to the user's leg when played.