Research

Vibrotactile Feedback project is CIRMMT Research Spotlight

From: http://www.cirmmt.org/activities/newsletter/past/september12 A VIBROTACTILE SYNTHESIS FRAMEWORK FOR HAPTIC FEEDBACK IN LIVE-ELECTRONIC MUSIC PERFORMANCE The goal of this project is the development of a vibrotactile synthesis framework to provide performers with information about the internal state of a live-electronics system. We propose to exploit the haptic modality as an alternative channel for information display. The use of […]

Research

Sensor Harp

Video
Harp
The Sensor Harp

This is a DMI developed together with Graham Boyes within a Music Technology course at McGill.

As a physically-informed gestural controller the primary method of interaction involves the manipulation of a vibrating mechanism consisting of stretch sensors (a mechanical system). This system may be considered a hybrid between a controller and a sound generator. That is, the sensors exhibit oscillatory behaviour, however this is typically below the audible range. In order to preserve a faithful image of the vibrational mechanism (the interaction of stretch sensors) we adopt an alternate approach to gesture acquisition based on the analysis of an audio signal.

A major design goal is to reinforce the physical interaction between performer and instrument, making use of the system’s inherent visual, tactile and kinesthetic feedback to establish a higher degree of control intimacy. Another criterion is the integrality of control within the system. In fact, we are not only sensing the gestures of the human performer, but rather the performer-system- interaction. However, it is also possible to selectively control separate parameters within certain boundaries.