Sensing and mapping for interactive performance

This paper describes a trans-domain mapping (TDM) framework for translating meaningful activities from one creative domain onto another. The multi-disciplinary framework is designed to facilitate an intuitive and non-intrusive interactive multimedia performance interface that offers the users or performers real-time control of multimedia events using their physical movements. It is intended to be a highly dynamic real-time performance tool, sensing and tracking activities and changes, in order to provide interactive multimedia performances. From a straightforward definition of the TDM framework, this paper reports several implementations and multi-disciplinary collaborative projects using the proposed framework, including a motion and colour-sensitive system, a sensor-based system for triggering musical events, and a distributed multimedia server for audio mapping of a real-time face tracker, and discusses different aspects of mapping strategies in their context. Plausible future directions, developments and exploration with the proposed framework, including stage augmenta tion, virtual and augmented reality, which involve sensing and mapping of physical and non-physical changes onto multimedia control events, are discussed

Applications of system dynamics modelling to computer music

Based on a composer's psycho-acoustic imagination or response to music, system dynamics modelling and simulation tools can be used as a scoring device to map the structural dynamic shape of interest of computer music compositions. The tools can also be used as a generator of compositional ideas reflecting thematic juxtaposition and emotional flux in musical narratives. These techniques allow the modelling of everyday narratives to provide a structural/metaphorical means of music composition based on archetypes that are shared with wider audiences. The methods are outlined using two examples

Tangible user interfaces : past, present and future directions

In the last two decades, Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) have emerged as a new interface type that interlinks the digital and physical worlds. Drawing upon users' knowledge and skills of interaction with the real non-digital world, TUIs show a potential to enhance the way in which people interact with and leverage digital information. However, TUI research is still in its infancy and extensive research is required in or- der to fully understand the implications of tangible user interfaces, to develop technologies that further bridge the digital and the physical, and to guide TUI design with empirical knowledge. This paper examines the existing body of work on Tangible User In- terfaces. We start by sketching the history of tangible user interfaces, examining the intellectual origins of this field. We then present TUIs in a broader context, survey application domains, and review frame- works and taxonomies. We also discuss conceptual foundations of TUIs including perspectives from cognitive sciences, phycology, and philoso- phy. Methods and technologies for designing, building, and evaluating TUIs are also addressed. Finally, we discuss the strengths and limita- tions of TUIs and chart directions for future research

D-touch: A Consumer-Grade Tangible Interface Module and Musical Applications

We define a class of tangible media applications that can be implemented on consumer-grade personal computers. These applications interpret user manipulation of physical objects in a restricted space and produce unlocalized outputs. We propose a generic approach to the implementation of such interfaces using flexible fiducial markers, which identify objects to a robust and fast video-processing algorithm, so they can be recognized and tracked in real time. We describe an implementation of the technology, then report two new, flexible music performance applications that demonstrate and validate it

Issues and techniques for collaborative music making on multi-touch surfaces

A range of systems exist for collaborative music making on multi-touch surfaces. Some of them have been highly successful, but currently there is no systematic way of designing them, to maximise collaboration for a particular user group. We are particularly interested in systems that will engage novices and experts. We designed a simple application in an initial attempt to clearly analyse some of the issues. Our application allows groups of users to express themselves in collaborative music making using pre-composed materials. User studies were video recorded and analysed using two techniques derived from Grounded Theory and Content Analysis. A questionnaire was also conducted and evaluated. Findings suggest that the application affords engaging interaction. Enhancements for collaborative music making on multi-touch surfaces are discussed. Finally, future work on the prototype is proposed to maximise engagement

The evolution of a visual-to-auditory sensory substitution device using interactive genetic algorithms

Sensory Substitution is a promising technique for mitigating the loss of a sensory modality. Sensory Substitution Devices (SSDs) work by converting information from the impaired sense (e.g. vision) into another, intact sense (e.g. audition). However, there are a potentially infinite number of ways of converting images into sounds and it is important that the conversion takes into account the limits of human perception and other user-related factors (e.g. whether the sounds are pleasant to listen to). The device explored here is termed “polyglot” because it generates a very large set of solutions. Specifically, we adapt a procedure that has been in widespread use in the design of technology but has rarely been used as a tool to explore perception – namely Interactive Genetic Algorithms. In this procedure, a very large range of potential sensory substitution devices can be explored by creating a set of ‘genes’ with different allelic variants (e.g. different ways of translating luminance into loudness). The most successful devices are then ‘bred’ together and we statistically explore the characteristics of the selected-for traits after multiple generations. The aim of the present study is to produce design guidelines for a better SSD. In three experiments we vary the way that the fitness of the device is computed: by asking the user to rate the auditory aesthetics of different devices (Experiment 1), by measuring the ability of participants to match sounds to images (Experiment 2) and the ability to perceptually discriminate between two sounds derived from similar images (Experiment 3). In each case the traits selected for by the genetic algorithm represent the ideal SSD for that task. Taken together, these traits can guide the design of a better SSD

A Mimetic Strategy to Engage Voluntary Physical Activity In Interactive Entertainment

We describe the design and implementation of a vision based interactive entertainment system that makes use of both involuntary and voluntary control paradigms. Unintentional input to the system from a potential viewer is used to drive attention-getting output and encourage the transition to voluntary interactive behaviour. The iMime system consists of a character animation engine based on the interaction metaphor of a mime performer that simulates non-verbal communication strategies, without spoken dialogue, to capture and hold the attention of a viewer. The system was developed in the context of a project studying care of dementia sufferers. Care for a dementia sufferer can place unreasonable demands on the time and attentional resources of their caregivers or family members. Our study contributes to the eventual development of a system aimed at providing relief to dementia caregivers, while at the same time serving as a source of pleasant interactive entertainment for viewers. The work reported here is also aimed at a more general study of the design of interactive entertainment systems involving a mixture of voluntary and involuntary control.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, ECAG08 worksho

Multiple Media Interfaces for Music Therapy

This article describes interfaces (and the supporting technological infrastructure) to create audiovisual instruments for use in music therapy. In considering how the multidimensional nature of sound requires multidimensional input control, we propose a model to help designers manage the complex mapping between input devices and multiple media software. We also itemize a research agenda

Music Maker – A Camera-based Music Making Tool for Physical Rehabilitation

The therapeutic effects of playing music are being recognized increasingly in the field of rehabilitation medicine. People with physical disabilities, however, often do not have the motor dexterity needed to play an instrument. We developed a camera-based human-computer interface called "Music Maker" to provide such people with a means to make music by performing therapeutic exercises. Music Maker uses computer vision techniques to convert the movements of a patient's body part, for example, a finger, hand, or foot, into musical and visual feedback using the open software platform EyesWeb. It can be adjusted to a patient's particular therapeutic needs and provides quantitative tools for monitoring the recovery process and assessing therapeutic outcomes. We tested the potential of Music Maker as a rehabilitation tool with six subjects who responded to or created music in various movement exercises. In these proof-of-concept experiments, Music Maker has performed reliably and shown its promise as a therapeutic device.National Science Foundation (IIS-0308213, IIS-039009, IIS-0093367, P200A01031, EIA-0202067 to M.B.); National Institutes of Health (DC-03663 to E.S.); Boston University (Dudley Allen Sargent Research Fund (to A.L.)