NIME 2014 (New Interfaces for Musical Expression)

SoundXY4: Supporting Tabletop Collaboration and Awareness with Ambisonics Spatialisation
Anna Xambó, Gerard Roma, Robin Laney, Chris Dobbyn, Sergi Jordà
The Open University, Institute of Education, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Long Paper

Co-located tabletop tangible user interfaces (TUIs) for music performance are known for promoting multi-player collaboration with a shared interface, yet it is still unclear how to best support the awareness of the workspace in terms of understanding individual actions and the other group members actions, in parallel. In this paper, we investigate the effects of providing auditory feedback using ambisonics spatialisation, aimed at informing users about the location of the tangibles on the tabletop surface, with groups of mixed musical backgrounds. Participants were asked to improvise music on "SoundXY4: The Art of Noise", a tabletop system that includes sound samples inspired by Russolo's taxonomy of noises. We compared spatialisation vs. no-spatialisation conditions, and findings suggest that, when using spatialisation, there was a clearer workspace awareness, and a greater engagement in the musical activity as an immersive experience.