Comparison of input devices in an ISEE direct timbre manipulation task

The representation and manipulation of sound within multimedia systems is an important and currently under-researched area. The paper gives an overview of the authors' work on the direct manipulation of audio information, and describes a solution based upon the navigation of four-dimensional scaled timbre spaces. Three hardware input devices were experimentally evaluated for use in a timbre space navigation task: the Apple Standard Mouse, Gravis Advanced Mousestick II joystick (absolute and relative) and the Nintendo Power Glove. Results show that the usability of these devices significantly affected the efficacy of the system, and that conventional low-cost, low-dimensional devices provided better performance than the low-cost, multidimensional dataglove

Cognition and Physicality in Musical Cyberinstruments

In this paper, we present the SensOrg, a musical CyberInstrument designed as a modular assembly of input/output devices and musical software, mapped and arranged according to functional characteristics of the Man-Instrument system. We discuss how the cognitive ergonomics of non-verbal and symbolic task modalities influenced the design of our hardware interface for asynchronous as well as synchronous task situations. Using malleable atoms and tangible bits, we externally represented the musical functionality in a physical interface which is totally flexible yet completely freezable. Introduction Musicians strive many years in order to connect their neural pathways to a vibrating segment of string, wood, metal or air. In many ways, learning how to play a musical instrument is dictated by the physical idiosyncrasies of the instrument design. A good instrumentalist typically needs to start almost from scratch when trying to play a new instrument. Even when musicians master their instrume..

Look who's talking:the GAZE groupware system

The GAZE Groupware System is a multiparty mediated system which provides support for gaze awareness in communication and collaboration. The system uses an advanced, desk-mounted eyetracker to metaphorically convey gaze awareness in a 3D virtual meeting room and within shared documents

Filling in the Facts: The Practice of Space-Filling in Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions

This article explores the use of sign sequences (plene writing) in Hieroglyphic Luwian. It isargued that the vowel signs in these sequences are frequently used as space-fillers in almost all texts dateableto the Iron Age. Space-filling explains the presence of many vowel signs commonly taken as linguisticallyvoid, and a new transliteration method is proposed to mark these space-fillers in a uniform way. It is alsoshown that many vowel signs cannot have been used as space-fillers. Rather, these signs are linguisticallysignificant and bound to express a phonetic feature. On a methodological level, this article considers how wecan meaningfully distinguish space-fillers from linguistically real plene writing, as both were not markeddifferently by the scribes. The last section examines space-fillers in greater detail: their chronological distributionand vowel quality are treated, as are some conspicuous and rare types of space-filling.NWO276-70-026Descriptive and Comparative Linguistic