News and Events
Virtual Wind Section
An interactive virtual orchestra sound installation at the EcoTarium Science Museum. Wind Section allows the participants to create real time jazz by simply blowing air towards the instruments. A simple puff of air at the instrument creates a nicely improvised jazz figure. A stronger puff of air gradually turns the improvised figure into some really 'hot' sounding jazz. When all of the instruments start playing together, along with the steady rhythm section, .....beautiful music results! See more.......
EMERGENCE
The future of theater and interactive entertainment in a 360-degree, full-dome, immersive performance space. In Emergence, every result is either a sum or a difference of co-operant forces. The production unfolds in a world where truth is stranger than fiction.... a world of virtual environments, immersive sound, and real-time audience interactivity. Read more....
Venice, Italy
A PostModern/PostMortem
Designed to elevate awareness to the social, economic, and artistic dilemmas that face Venice in the 21st Century, the PostModern/PostMortem includes over twenty outdoor interactive media installations scattered throughout Venice. The Post Modern/Post Mortem is a response to 20 years of research carried out by WPI targeting the crumbling infrastructure of Venice. This includes canal erosion, the exodus of the native population, the decline in retail business, and the deterioration of public art. The goal is to create interactive technologies that will integrate into the public landscape of Venice and become an urban "youth expression toolkit" capable of unleashing the creativity of the younger generations. For more insight, visit the Venice blog.....
Interactive Media and Game Development
Guest Speaker Series
The Interactive Media and Game Development (IMGD) Guest Speaker Series is a weekly lecture and discussion on topics of interest to IMGD. The sessions are open to the public and available via webcast. Read more...
Human Interaction in Virtual Environments
Exploring the edge of interactivity, the TactaVest is an upper-body garment that has 16 pager motors (a.k.a. tactors) distributed at potential points of contact, such as the elbows, shoulders, and back. The intensity level of each tactor can be controlled independently over 200 levels of vibration. The TactaVest communicates with the rendering computer using Bluetooth. Read more about the HIVE labs ...
The Access Grid and Collaborative Performances
The Access Grid was designed in the Futures Lab of Argonne National Laboratory and early adopters in the Department of Energy Laboratories and academic institutions developed the first version of Access Grid technology. MAGIC uses the Grid to create state-of-the-art collaboration applications. With the ability to communicate with multiple off site participants in real time, the Grid enables live performance opportunities and collaborations to occur between remote locations. Because the Grid utilizes multicast networking, it efficiently manages bandwidth requirements making it possible to stream audio and video in real time. MAGIC is also experimenting with online virtual environments, remote virtual orchestra performance, and applications exploring live online interactivity.
Urban Sound Design Project
The USDP is aimed at establishing a worldwide network of intelligent audio playback devices deployed in urban spaces and communicating locally and globally over wireless Internet. The goal of the project is to create a network of dedicated audio devices capable of sensing, analyzing, sharing, and sonifying real time data for the purpose of sound designing and sonically transforming urban spaces. Read more.....
A Subvocal Musical Interface
The TERC (tuned electromagnetic resonator collar) is a non-acoustic speech sensor designed for use in a low-bit-rate speech encoding system. The overall goal of the ongoing project is to develop technologies to achieve low-bit-rate speech encoding (300 bits per second) with acceptable intelligibility in acoustically harsh environments. A key focus of the project is the use of noise-immune sensors in addition to microphone sensors to improve the intelligibility of the encoded speech in high-noise environments.
The TERC sensor detects glottal activity that occurs during voiced speech by establishing a low-power electromagnetic field through the larynx and detecting the small changes in this field that are induced by movement of the vocal folds. Subvocal activity can be detected and is being explored as a real-time performer interface for digital music instruments and virtual orchestras. For more information, visit the Signal Processing and Information Networking Laboratory (SPINLAB)......
The Digital Choral Book
Development is underway on a prototype Digital Choral Book designed to store and display thousands of downloaded music notation files. The lightweight, low power, high resolution, and high capacity storage device is intended to replace traditional 'print music' for the choir. Future development on the Digital Choir Book calls for intelligent algorithms aimed at enhancing rehearsal and performance strategies.
Maintained by webmaster@wpi.eduLast modified: November 03, 2009 08:33:41