Non-electrophonic cyborg instruments: playing on everyday things as if the whole world were one giant musical instrument

ABSTRACT

We introduce a new musical instrument in which computation is used to modify acoustically generated sounds. The acoustically generated sounds originate from real physical objects in the user's environment. These sounds are picked up by one or more microphones connected to a camera phone which filters the sounds using filters whose coefficients change in response to subject matter present in view of the camera. In one example, a row of 12 image processing zones is presented such that sounds originating from real world objects in the first zone are mapped to the first note on a musical scale, sounds originating from the second zone are mapped to the second note of the musical scale, and so on. Thus a user can hit a cement wall or sidewalk, or the ground, and the camera phone will transform the resulting sound (e.g. a dull "thud") into a desired sound, such as the sound of tubular bells, chimes, or the like. Note that the instrument is not an electronic instrument (i.e. not an Electrophone in the Hornbostel Sachs sense) because the sound originates acoustically and is merely filtered toward the desired note. This plays upon the acoustic qualities and physicality of the originating media. For example, if we strike the ground abruptly, the sound resembles that of a bell being hit abruptly. If we rub the ground, the sound resembles that of rubbing a bell. We can scrape the ground in various ways to obtain various sounds that differ depending on which of the camera's zones we're in, as well as the physical properties of the ground itself. These experiences can be shared across "cyborgspace" to effectively blur the boundary between the real and virtual worlds. We present an aquatic instrument that plays upon jets of water, where it is the filter coefficients of the transform that are shared. This allows both users to play the instrument in the jets of water of different public fountains but still experience the same musical qualities of the instrument, and share the physical experience of playing in a fountain despite geographic distances.

REFERENCES

• 1: Kartomi, M. J. (1990). On Concepts and Classifications of Musical Instruments. Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology (CSE). University of Chicago Press.
• 2: Machover, T. (1991). Hyperinstruments: A composer's approach to the evolution of intelligent musical instruments. In Freeman, W., editor, Cyberarts. Spartan Books, San Francisco.
• 3: Steve Mann, "fl Huge UId streams": fountains that are keyboards with nozzle spray as keys that give rich tactile feedback and are more expressive and more fun than plastic keys, Proceedings of the 13th annual ACM international conference on Multimedia, November 06-11, 2005, Hilton, Singapore [doi>10.1145/1101149.1101176]
• 4: Sachs, C. (1940). The History of Musical Instruments. Norton, New York.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)

Additional Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.4 IMAGE PROCESSING AND COMPUTER VISION
      I.4.9 Applications

  J. Computer Applications
  J.5 ARTS AND HUMANITIES

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Human Factors, Performance

Keywords:
FUNtain™, aquaborg, cyberfountain™, cyborg, cyborgfountain™, fluid sampling, fluid-user-interfaces, frolic, frolicious, harmellotron, harmelody, hydraulophones, interactive art, tangible user interfaces, urban beach, urbeach, water-based immersive multimedia, waterborg