FeelSound: interactive acoustic music making

FeelSound is a multi-user, multi-touch application that aims to collaboratively compose, in an entertaining way, acoustic music. Simultaneous input by each of up to four users enables collaborative composing. This process as well as the resulting music are entertaining. Sensor-packed intelligent environments form the target location of FeelSound, varying from the home to schools and other public spaces. Inhabitants of these environments can be creative and artistic through the act of composing music. We continue our previous research on entertaining through music [3] by bringing it to touch-sensitive tables. Composers stand around the FeelSound tabletop interface and, by touching the table with multiple fingers and hands, create acoustic samples. Each instrument is represented by virtual composer stones that a user touches. Upon touching such a stone, an input field is shown on which samples can be created by drawing shapes. Through user identification, multiple composers can create music samples simultaneously and compose these samples into a score. Each user may position any sample in the score, requiring social agreement from their fellow composers.