Designing for Emerging Technologies: UX for Genomics, Robotics, and the Internet of Things by Follett Jonathan

Author:Follett, Jonathan
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: COMPUTERS / User Interfaces
ISBN: 9781449370640
Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Published: 2014-11-06T16:00:00+00:00

Designing for Software Instruments: from Gestures, through Mapping, to Sound

When designing a software-based musical instrument, either from scratch or by extending a familiar instrument, choosing its inputs and outputs is relatively easy. The instrument’s inputs are buttons, knobs, tilt sensors, cameras, or even whichever of these is found in a smartphone. Its outputs might just be dictated by what commands can be sent to the instument’s audio synthesizer, be that a chip or software. Common outputs are pitch (how high a sound is) and loudness. Other aspects of timbre can come from a set of discrete presets, such as the trumpet and harpsichord buttons on a department store keyboard.

At this point, after choosing inputs and outputs, the real work of XD begins. To see what a difference is made by the input-to-output mapping, let’s consider three real-world examples that use the same gesture-inputs and sound-outputs, varying only the mapping.

Conventional pickup-and-amplifier instrument, such as an electric guitar or electric violin, plus a tilt sensor. (Duct-tape a smartphone to the instrument.) Feed the pickup and the tilt sensor into a computer (perhaps that same smartphone), which computes sound to send to the amplifier.

Inputs: tilt, pitch, and loudness.

Outputs: pitch and loudness.

Unless otherwise specified, pitch maps to pitch, and loudness to loudness.Rock star

High notes are dramatic in everything from Van Halen to Wagner. To make them easier to play while maintaining drama, when the instrument points up, raise the output pitch by an octave or two.

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