Musical Robots And Interactive Multimodal Systems

Musical robotics is a multi- and trans-disciplinary research area involving a wide range of different domains that contribute to its development, including: computer science, multimodal interfaces and processing, artificial intelligence, electronics, robotics, mechatronics and more. A musical robot requires many different complex systems to work together; integrating musical representation, techniques, expressions, detailed analysis and controls, for both playing and listening. The development of interactive multimodal systems provides advancements which enable enhanced human-machine interaction and novel possibilities for embodied robotic platforms. This volume is focused on this highly exciting interdisciplinary field. This book consists of 14 chapters highlighting different aspects of musical activities and interactions, discussing cutting edge research related to interactive multimodal systems and their integration with robots to further enhance musical understanding, interpretation, performance, education and enjoyment. It is dichotomized into two sections: Section I focuses on understanding elements of musical performance and expression while Section II concentrates on musical robots and automated instruments. Musical Robots and Interactive Multimodal Systems provides an introduction and foundation for researchers, students and practitioners to key achievements and current research trends on interactive multimodal systems and musical robotics.

Sound in human–robot interaction currently encompasses a wide range of approaches and methodologies not easily classified, analyzed or compared among projects. This edited book covers the state of the art in sound and robotics, aiming to gather existing approaches in a combined volume. Collecting chapters from world-leading academic and industry authors, Sound and Robotics: Speech, Non-Verbal Audio and Robotic Musicianship explores how robots can communicate through speech, non-verbal audio and music. The first set of chapters explores how robots use verbal communication, considering the possibilities of speech for human–robot interaction. The second section shifts to roles of non-verbal communication in HRI, including consequential sound, sonification and audio cues. The third and final section describes current approaches to robotic musicianship and their evaluation. This book is primarily aimed at HRI researchers, ranging from those who have never used sound to those very experienced with sound. Alongside robotic researchers, this book will present avenues for a diverse range of musicians, composers and sound designers to become introduced to the world of HRI and learn of potential creative directions in robotics.

This book discusses the principles, methodologies, and challenges of robotic musicianship through an in-depth review of the work conducted at the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology (GTCMT), where the concept was first developed. Robotic musicianship is a relatively new research field that focuses on the design and development of intelligent music-making machines. The motivation behind the field is to develop robots that not only generate music, but also collaborate with humans by listening and responding in an expressive and creative manner. This combination of human and machine creativity has the potential to surprise and inspire us to play, listen, compose, and think about music in new ways. The book provides an in-depth view of the robotic platforms designed at the GTCMT Robotic Musicianship Group, including the improvisational robotic percussionists Haile and Shimon, the personal robotic companion Shimi, and a number of wearable robots, such as the Robotic Drumming Prosthesis, The Third Drumming Arm, and the Skywalker Piano Hand. The book discusses numerous research studies based on these platforms in the context of five main principles: Listen like a Human, Play Like a Machine, Be Social, Watch and Learn, and Wear It.

This edited collection approaches the field of social robotics from the perspective of a cultural ecology, fostering a deeper examination of the reach of robotic technology into the lived experience of diverse human populations, as well as the impact of human cultures on the development and design of these social agents. To address the broad topic of Cultural Robotics, the book is sectioned into three focus areas: Human Futures, Assistive Technologies, and Creative Platforms and their Communities. The Human Futures section includes chapters on the histories and future of social robot morphology design, sensory and sonic interaction with robots, technology ethics, material explorations of embodiment, and robotic performed sentience. The Assistive Technologies section presents chapters from community-led teams, and researchers working to adopt a strengths-based approach to designing assistive technologies for those with disability or neurodivergence. Importantly, this section contains work written by authors belonging to those communities. Creative Platforms and their Communities looks to the creative cross-disciplinary researchers adopting robotics within their art practices, those contributing creatively to more traditional robotics research, and the testing of robotics in non-traditional platforms such as museum and gallery spaces. Cultural Robotics: Social Robots and their Emergent Cultural Ecologies makes a case for the development of social robotics to be increasingly informed by community-led transdisciplinary research, to be decentralised and democratised, shaped by teams with a diversity of backgrounds, informed by both experts and non-experts, and tested in both traditional and non-traditional platforms. In this way, the field of cultural robotics as an ecological approach to encompassing the widest possible spectrum of human experience in the development of social robotics can be advanced.

This book contains revised selected papers from the Second International Conference on Information Technologies for Performing Arts, Media Access and Entertainment, ECLAP 2013, held in Porto, Portugal, in April 2013. The 24 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in this book. They are organized in topical sections named: perspectives and (digital) strategies for cultural heritage institutions; trust, quality and tools for cultural heritage digital libraries; educational services for the performing arts; dance in the world of data and objects; acting and natural interaction; and music and opera of a digital generation.

Presenting the latest technological developments in arts and culture, this volume demonstrates the advantages of a union between art and science. Electronic Visualisation in Arts and Culture is presented in five parts: Imaging and Culture New Art Practice Seeing Motion Interaction and Interfaces Visualising Heritage Electronic Visualisation in Arts and Culture explores a variety of new theory and technologies, including devices and techniques for motion capture for music and performance, advanced photographic techniques, computer generated images derived from different sources, game engine software, airflow to capture the motions of bird flight and low-altitude imagery from airborne devices. The international authors of this book are practising experts from universities, art practices and organisations, research centres and independent research. They describe electronic visualisation used for such diverse aspects of culture as airborne imagery, computer generated art based on the autoimmune system, motion capture for music and for sign language, the visualisation of time and the long term preservation of these materials. Selected from the EVA London conferences from 2009-2012, held in association with the Computer Arts Society of the British Computer Society, the authors have reviewed, extended and fully updated their work for this state-of-the-art volume.

The two-volume set LNCS 8547 and 8548 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs, ICCHP 2014, held in Paris, France, in July 2014. The 132 revised full papers and 55 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 362 submissions. The papers included in the first volume are organized in the following topical sections: accessible media; digital content and media accessibility; 25 years of the Web: weaving accessibility; towards e-inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities; the impact of PDF/UA on accessible PDF; accessibility of non-verbal communication; emotions for accessibility (E4A), games and entertainment software; accessibility and therapy; implementation and take-up of e-accessibility; accessibility and usability of mobile platforms for people with disabilities and elderly persons; portable and mobile platforms for people with disabilities and elderly persons; people with cognitive disabilities: At, ICT and AAC; autism: ICT and AT; access to mathematics, science and music and blind and visually impaired people: AT, HCI and accessibility.

Body as Instrument explores how musicians interact with movement-controlled performance systems, producing sounds imbued with their individual physical signature. Using motion tracking technology, performers can translate physical actions into sonic processes, creating or adapting novel gestural systems that transcend the structures and constraints of conventional musical instruments. Interviews with influential artists in the field, Laetitia Sonami, Atau Tanaka, Pamela Z, Julie Wilson-Bokowiec, Lauren Sarah Hayes, Mark Coniglio, Garth Paine and The Bent Leather Band expose the transformational impact of motion sensors on musicians' body awareness and abilities. Coupled with reflection on author-composed works, the book analyses how the body as instrument metaphor informs relationships between performers, their bodies and self-designed instruments. It also examines the role of experiential design strategies in developing robust and nuanced gestural systems that mirror a performer's movement habits, preferences and skills, inspiring new physical forms of musical communication and diverse musical repertoire.