TIEM

Amnon Dekel: instructor, adviser
Gilly Dekel: project lead, developer

The Mobile Gesture Mabed Musical Intrument uses gesture input on Nokia N95 as input to MIDI instruments or directly to phone sound generator.

The MoGMI project explores ways of enabling the mobile phone to become a musical instrument for naïve users. Using the 3 dimensional accelerometer on the Nokia N95 users can record musical pieces using physical gestures. We developed an application that allowed them to select one to three musical instruments and create music with them. An additional application lets users play a drum-set. This initial study explores which accelerometer axis mapping model is preferred by users. Do they prefer a model in which each of the motion axes are mapped to a different instrument or one in which the motion affects volume, pitch and attack of a single instrument. Results show that subjects preferred the three axis model in which every axis is mapped to a different dimension of music generation (attack, amplitude, and pitch). This mapping was deemed better by subjects over simpler or more complicated mapping models in three of five dimensions (easier to learn, produces “nicer” music, and in how easy it is to understand the relationship between gestures performed and the music that is subsequently generated).