Gesture Analysis of Bow Strokes Using an Augmented Violin - Nicolas Hainiandry Rasamimanana

Gesture Analysis of Bow Strokes Using an Augmented Violin - Nicolas Hainiandry Rasamimanana

This research this article presents has been aimed towards finding new ways of interacting with a computer in a musical context. They do this using a traditional violin and bow which have been augmented with various sensors to provide different kinds of data readings which can be used for synthesis.

In this respect the article presents a good example of an augmented instrument and goes into detail about the sensor systems it employs (particularly in chapter 2, "Ircam's Augmented Violin").

Chapter 1, "State of the Art", begins by presenting definitions for "new music interfaces" (corresponding to the instrument-like, instrument-inspired and alternative controllers from previous definitions) and "augmented instruments". It also briefly presents some pros and cons of each approach to DMI creation.

Importantly, Chapter 1 also presents examples of existing systems some of which I have been able to find resources for:

BoSSA - the Bowed-Sensor-Speaker-Array - an instrument which looks as weird as it does cool. The link provides a description and a lot of examples and resources, including a publication which I will review. For convenience a demo video can be found here. Rasamimanana's article would consider (clearly) a new music interface. One could possibly argue that we could consider it an instrument-inspired controller, based on the violin. Indeed the instrument attempted directly to mimic some of the violin's physical performance interface but there is a question of how much a new controller must resemble an existing one in order to be considered "instrument-inspired". Personally, I feel comfortable enough giving it this label. Every aspect of this instrument is interesting. In terms of interaction it has many more transducers that it immediately appears to have including pressure sensors and several accelerometers on both the bow and finger board (which is also equipped with a linear position sensor for selecting notes). The most interesting aspect of this controller is the fact that it has attempted to reproduce the resonator of a violin using a spherical array of speakers which (i assume through some kind of DSP) can "reconstruct the radiative timbral qualities of violins in a
traditional acoustic space". According to Rasamimanana, in the video in the above link the bow data was used to control a comb filter vibrato.

Note: This section refers to pressure sensors as FSRs (force sensing resistors)

Biomuse - The report sites the BioMuse created by Atau Tanaka. "Bioelectrical signals, and particularly electromyograms of his arm muscles, are digitized and mapped to sounds and images. Therefore, the movements of his body are directly interpreted to create music". The sound quality in the above video isn't create but it does show very clearly the biomuse being used. Some brief research also returned the Biomuse Trio. Where a similar instrument again called the biomuse can be seen. This biomuse however is being played by Ben Knapp who is also sited as its creator. Not sure what, if any, the connection is between the two instruments.

Hypercello - See the video. An instrument created for Yo-Yo Ma by Tod Machover as part of his HyperInstruments research group. Again the cello has been augmented with various sensors, the signals from which are used as parameters for synthesis.

The rest of the report goes into detail about the analysis carried out on the signals received from this augmented instrument's sensors.

My aim from the beginning of this project was to look at ways in which some form of connection can be reestablished with digitally synthesized music in order to allow it to be used with a greater degree of expressivity. This paper specifically states that often in the case of new musical interfaces, although connection can be established using the right kinds of transducers, the simplicity (with regards to acoustic instruments) of the interface "often means a poorer expressive interface". The report also highlights again the importance of haptic (touch) feedback when playing, stating that this is something still under research. Perhaps the best way to over come these things is to consider an augmented instrument approach?