Incorporating Haptic Feedback into Interfaces for Music Applications
M. Sile O'Modhrain and Chris Chafe
ABSTRACT
Though musicians rely primarily on their sense of hearing to monitor
and adjust the sound being produced by their instrument, there exists a
second path through which valuable information about the instrument's
behavior can be observed - namely the feedback received via the
haptic senses, the senses of touch and kinesthesia. The present study
tested the hypothesis that leveraging off the musician's unconscious
use of combined auditory and haptic cues by adding haptic feedback to
computer-based musical instruments would improve the "playability" of
these instruments. Twenty experienced musicians played a series of
short melodies on an unfamiliar computer-based musical instrument. The
instrument's controller was capable of producing force feedback,
making it possible to systematically vary the instrument's "feel."
Results indicate that the presence of haptic feedback improved playing
accuracy by approximately 23 percent.
