Physical interface design for digital musical instruments
Mark T. Marshall · 2009
This thesis deals with the study of performer-instrument interaction during the performance of novel digital musical instruments (DMIs). Unlike acoustic instruments, digital musical instruments have no coupling between the sound generation system and the physical interface with which the performer interacts. As a result of this, such instruments also lack the direct physical feedback to the performer which is present in an acoustic instrument. In fact in contrast to acoustic musical instruments, haptic and vibrotactile feedback is generally not present in a DMI contributing to a poor feel for the instrument. The main goal of this thesis is to propose ways to improve the overall feel of digital musical instruments through the study and design of its physical interface: the instrument body, sensors and feedback actuators. It includes a detailed study of the existing theory and practice of the design on physical interfaces for digital musical instruments, including a survey of 266 existing DMIs presented since the inception of the NIME conference. From this, a number of differences become apparent between the existing theory and practice, particularly in the areas of sensors and feedback. The research in this thesis then addresses these differences. It includes a series of experiments on the optimal choice of sensors for a digital musical instrument. This is followed by research into the provision of vibrotactile feedback in a digital musical instrument, including the choice of actuator, modification of actuator frequency response, and the effects of response modification on human vibrotactile frequency discrimination. Following this, a number of new digital musical instruments are presented, which were created during the course of this work. This includes an instrument designed specifically to follow the results of research in this thesis and also instruments designed as part of larger collaborative projects involving engineers, composers and performers. Fro