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Our H 2 O rchestra uses musical instruments that make sound in each of the states-of-matter of H 2 O (dihydrogen monoxide): Pagophone (“pago” is Greek for “ice” and “phone” is Greek for “sound”) represents H 2 O in its solid-state; Hydraulophone: a musical instrument that makes sound from matter (water) in its liquid state; Callio fl ute: a musical instrument that 

Our H 2 O rchestra uses musical instruments that make sound in each of the states-of-matter of H 2 O (dihydrogen monoxide): Pagophone (“pago” is Greek for “ice” and “phone” is Greek for “sound”) represents H 2 O in its solid-state; Hydraulophone: a musical instrument that makes sound from matter (water) in its liquid state; Callio fl ute: a musical instrument that 

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Conference Paper
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This paper describes a musical instrument consisting of a physical process that acoustically generates sound from the material world (i.e. sound derived from matter such as solid, liquid, gas, or plasma) which is modified by a secondary input from the informatic world. This informatic input selects attributes such as the frequency range of the musi...

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... paper describes a musical instrument consisting of a physical process that acoustically generates sound from the material world (i.e. sound derived from matter such as solid, liquid, gas, or plasma) which is modi fi ed by a secondary input from the informatic world. This informatic input selects attributes such as the frequency range of the musical note be- ing sounded, while the acoustic process is kept in close contact with the user, to ensure a high degree of expressivity. In one example, ice skates with acoustic pickups are used to play music while the skater simultaneously controls a bandpass fi lter with a hand-held keyer and wearable computer. Each skate works much like the bow on a violin, allowing the player to hit, scrape, rub, or “bow”, the ice in various ways to create a wide variety of musical textures. Additionally the player can select sound samples on a per-note basis and then “scratch” out a melody or harmony (playing multiple samples at once) on the ice on the rink like a team of Disk Jockeys (DJs) work- ing together to “scratch” an array of vinyl records. Because the grooves on an ice rink are made by the player in a freeform fashion, there is much more room for variations in musical timbres and textures than with the fi xed grooves of a record. Rather than merely using the keyer to trigger musical notes through MIDI note on/note off commands, we create acoustic sound through a physical process such as skating, and then turn those physical sounds into musical notes with the handheld keyer that functions as a modi fi er input. This combination combines the expressivity of non-electrophonic musical instruments like the violin with the fl exibility of electrophones like the sound synthesizer. As a further contribution of the paper, a general taxonomy of acoustic transducers and a link to physical organology is provided, in which the top-level of the taxonomy is the state- of-matter in which the transducer operates. Index Terms — Hyperacoustic, pagophone, pagolin, hydraulophone, reustophone, poseidophone, idratmosphone, at- mosphone, H2Orchestra, musikeyer, elementary organology Unlike a hyperinstrument[1] in which position sensors, or the like, ADD synthetic sounds to an acoustic instrument, hypera- coustic instruments use position sensors, or the like, to MUL- TIPLICATIVELY combine these. Most notably, hyperacoustic instruments use a synthetic input to modify an acoustically generated sound. See Figures 1 and 2. Organologists and ethnomusicologists often address funda- mental philosophical questions regarding categorization of musical instruments in view of recent developments. Instruments are generally classi fi ed based on initial sound production mechanisms; for example, an electric guitar is still a chordophone, not an electrophone, even though electric- ity (and now computation, i.e. digital effects pedals, etc.) is involved extensively further along the sound production path [2][3]. Hyperacoustic processing of audio signals relies on an acoustic sound source—ie. one which falls outside the “elec- trophones” category. In particular, we focus on acoustic signals from real-life physical processes in which the sound- producing medium is closely linked with the user-interface, in terms of controllability and tactility. A current trend in musical interfaces has been to expand ver- satililty and generality by separating user interfaces from their corresponding sound-producing media. Examples include the piano, harpsichord, and sound synthesizer, which often have a similar user interface that is quite separate from the harp or any physical process. The mechanization and consistency of user-interface allows more intricate and complex pieces to be played by a single person. This paper identi fi es an opposite trend in musical interface design inspired by instruments such as the harp (when the strings are directly plucked by the user), the acoustic or electric guitar, the tin whistle, and the Neanderthal fl ute. These instruments have a directness of user-interface, where the musician is in direct physical contact with the sound-producing medium. We propose the invention of new instruments that are designed to have this expressive intimacy, while also allowing for their high degree of virtuosity. Previous examples included the poseidophone, an instrument made from an array of ripple tanks, each tuned for a particular note [4], and the hydraulophone, an instrument in which sound is produced by pressurized hydraulic fl uid that is in direct physical contact with the fi ngers of the player [5]. To better understand and contextualize some of these new primordial user interfaces, a broader concept of musical instrument classi fi cation has recently been proposed that con- siders the state-of-matter of the sound production medium as well as the state-of-matter of the user-interface [4]. In the early 1980s, author S. Mann formed the concept of an “ H 2 O rchestra” in which dihydrogen monoxide ( H 2 O ), in its various states of solid (ice), liquid (water), and gas (steam/vapour), as well as underwater plasma (fourth state- of-matter) were used to generate acoustic sound. These instruments represent all four “Elements”: “Earth” (solid), “Water” (liquid); “Air” (gas); and “Fire” (plasma), using H 2 O . The resulting four instruments are called the pagophone (Greek for “ice” and “sound” in the same way that “xylophone” is Greek for “wood sound”), the hydraulophone, the idratmosphone, and the plasmaphone. This paper further explores variations of the pagophone. In one embodiment of the pagophone, variously lengthed bars made of ice are struck (see Fig. 3), and the sound is ampli fi ed by a pickup in each bar, or one for all bars. The pickups can also be connected to bandpass fi lters, a separate fi lter for each note, to improve the sound. In other versions there are only 1 or 2 fi lters for 1 or 2 sticks, with input from a computer-vision idioscope [6] to de- termine which bar is struck. In another embodiment of the pagophone, there is only one piece of ice which sounds different depending on geospa- tial or other input data. In one embodiment, the pagophone is “played” on a skating rink (the ice that makes the sound) with skates (or, equivalently with skis on a ski hill, or with a toboggan, mak- ing sound from snow), each skate fi tted with a pickup, passed through a wearable computer to a wearable ampli fi er and speakers. We call this a “pagolin” to draw the analogy of the skates to violin bows. In one version the pagist (pagophone player) uses a musikeyer to select the fi lter (the “note”), while putting expression into the foot scrape or other sound. One version has two keyers, and holds one in each hand. Some but not all embodiments also use computer vision to do object location and adjust the pagophonic sound appropri- ately. For example, vision, radar, sonar, or lidar sensors or a combination of these watch the passing ice, and index through sampled audio fi les to create an effect similar to “scratching” a ...

Citations

... This expressiveness of scratching, tapping, and swiping surfaces is likely what inspired the first documented instance of scratch input [Mann 2007]. Mann et al initially proposed scratch input as a source signal and modulation trigger for a novel musical instrument known as a "physiphone" or a "hyperacoustic instrument" [Mann et al. 2008]. Shortly thereafter, scratch input was proposed in a human-computer interaction system by Chris Harrison in 2008 [Harrison andHudson 2008]. ...
... Expanding the types of surfaces upon which the system works would also aid in the creation of more immersive interaction modalities with deep learning scratch input. Initial interest from Mann et al [Mann et al. 2008] originated in part from work in water-based musical instrumentation. Perhaps deep learning scratch input could be applied similarly to other states of matter. ...
Preprint
Full-text available
The vibrations generated from scratching and tapping on surfaces can be highly expressive and recognizable, and have therefore been proposed as a method of natural user interface (NUI). Previous systems require custom sensor hardware such as contact microphones and have struggled with gesture classification accuracy. We propose a deep learning approach to scratch input. Using smartphones and tablets laid on tabletops or other similar surfaces, our system achieved a gesture classification accuracy of 95.8\%, substantially reducing gesture misclassification from previous works. Further, our system achieved this performance when tested on a wide variety of surfaces, mobile devices, and in high noise environments. The results indicate high potential for the application of deep learning techniques to natural user interface (NUI) systems that can readily convert large unpowered surfaces into a user interface using just a smartphone with no special-purpose sensors or hardware.
... In this way, our WaterTouch system, when used as a musical instrument, is a hyperacoustic instrument. Unlike a hyperinstrument[5] in which position sensors, etc., add synthetic sounds to an acoustic instrument, hyperacoustic instruments use the acoustically-originated sound as their primary computer input/output and process that sound based on additional sensors or inputs [6]. To make this new hyperacoustic instrument as expressive as possible, we wished to bring the subsonic and ultrasonic sounds into the audible range. ...
Conference Paper
We propose a water-based multitouch multimedia user-interface based on total-internal reflection as viewed by an underwater camera. The underwater camera is arranged so that nothing above the water surface is visible until a user touches the water, at which time anything that penetrates the water's surface becomes clearly visible. Our contribution is twofold: (1) computer vision using underwater cameras aided by total internal reflection; (2) hyperacoustic signal processing (frequency shifting) to capture the natural, acoustically-originating sounds of water rather than using synthetic sounds. Using water itself as a touch screen creates a fun and playful user interface medium that captures the fluidity of the water's ebb and flow. In one application, a musical instrument is created in which acoustic disturbances in the water (received by underwater microphones or hydrophones) are frequency-shifted to musical notes corresponding to the location in which the water is touched, as determined by the underwater computer vision system.
... Our work on using underwater sound pickups with hydraulophones [2] has led to the creation of hyperacoustic instruments [7] which utilise not only audible sound from the physical sound production, but also sound in the subsonic and ultrasonic ranges as well, and shift it into an audible frequency spectrum. (This is in contrast to simply augmenting a hydraulophone to become a hyperinstrument [4]). ...
... Acoustic hydraulophones have been found to be highly expressive musical performance instruments [8]. Rich expressivity is possible because of: (1) the close coupling between the performer's fingers and the turbulent flow associated with sound production [7][2]; (2) acoustic/visual/tactile feedback to the performer, from hearing the turbulent sound, and seeing and feeling the water flow [5][9]; (3) fluidly continuous control over the sound by intricately touching the water jets [9]. These elements exist regardless of whether the acoustic sound production is used as an input source for computer music, or whether the hydraulophone is left as a purely acoustic musical instrument. ...
Article
Full-text available
Touching, diverting, restricting, or obstructing water jets con- stitutes a new type of user-interface for immersive multime- dia environments such as totally acoustic, totally electronic, or hybrid musical instruments. The result is a richly expres- sive input device. In the context of a musical instrument, this device is called a hydraulophone. Developments in the rich expressivity of the hydraulo- phone are presented, as a new type of embouchure control. This paper presents a new concept called "finger-jet em- bouchure" in which each "key" (water jet) on the instrument is governed by fluid-dynamics, rather than by solid key mo- tion. The direct coupling between a musician's finger and physical sound production in the liquid (which can be de- tected by underwater microphones and fed into a computer, thus creating a hyperacoustic user-interface) leads to highly expressive performance styles. By designing each note to be associated with one water-jet "mouth" on the instrument, we give the performer an ability to fluidly interleave the dynam- ics of many notes simultaneously, producing a phenomenon named "polyphonic embouchure". The result is the ability to perform richly expressive music, whether on an acous- tic hydraulophone, or on an enhanced hydraulophone with sound pickups for hyperacoustic computer performances.
Conference Paper
A novel class of modulation is introduced, for frequency transformation and spectral synthesis in real-time. Swarm modulation has potential applications to enhance human hearing with extended frequency ranges, in medical diagnostics for electrocardiogram (ECG), electroencephalogram (EEG) and other medical signals, for RADAR analysis, for user-interface sonification, and for sound synthesis or non-synthetic sound transformation. Swarm modulation is a new way to transform signals, and is demonstrated for transforming subsonic and ultrasonic sound into the audible range of human hearing. Swarm modulation is based on the principle of phase-incoherent frequency-roaming oscillation. Features in the frequency-time plane are reconstructed via a time-varying process, controllable with instantaneous zero-latency reaction time to new information. Swarm modulation allows prioritization of salient output spectral features for efficient processing, and overcomes cyclic beating patterns when Fourier and wavelet-based methods are applied in a stationary manner. Swarm modulation can flexibly re-map sound when a user expressively touches physical matter creating vibration. By detecting subsonic, sonic and ultrasonic vibrations, we can add to materials a rich acoustic user-feedback that can be adjusted to sound like a bell, xylophone, dull piece of wood, or a variety of other objects, in real-time. By dynamically controlling the output sound spectrum depending on the input spectrum, simultaneously with a continuous and low-latency temporal response, the system imitates the physicality of touching a real object. Applied in control panels and expressive control surfaces, swarm modulation can create realistic sonic feedback, for human head-up operation of controls in critical applications.