Soundcubed

After a little bit of discussion, we ended up going for the first prototype. Although the second prototype had one clear purpose, it would probably have ended up too complex and less intuitive than the first idea. We decided to keep on working with the materials and increase their importance. This week we started testing the technology we are planning to use. Firstly we had to figure out how to track the cubes in the sliders of the mixing table. For this, the best option was using RFID chips and readers. We implemented them in our Wizard of Oz prototype by placing one RFID tag in the cube and three RFID readers under one of the sliders. In each part of the slider the cube will activate a different sound. For now we are using buzzers to illustrate and test our concept. The buzzers will most definitely not be used in our following prototypes . We have also acquired a Raspberry Pi and installed drivers to connect the Arduinos. We made our first purchase; a micro SD-card for the R...

After defining our first idea for the project, we developed our "Wizard of Oz" prototype, in which we wanted to visualize in a general way what would be the shape of the mixing board, the way the different elements should be arranged in it, and how the blocks should fit in the rails to start doing a music composition. With the prototype, we dig deeper in to the idea of having the blocks with different properties such as weight, color, or materials, to differentiate one from another and to encourage users to recognize the properties of a musical element through physical descriptions. After trying to find the relation of this idea with the one we had before about mixing different music components, we realized that we were trying to merge two complete different ideas that could generate confusion for the user and lose the sense of what we want to teach him. This is how we came up with the idea of our second prototype. In this one we focus mainly on...

After a lot of thought, we finally agreed on what idea to focus on. We decided that we wanted to focus on how compositions are made up of elements such as  rhythm, bass and melody, and how different variations of these elements affect the end result. The user will gain insight into how the sounds are built up. We want the product to give the user a deeper understanding of how rhythm, bass and melody affect the composition of music, as well asan understanding of how different physical properties can describe music. Our prototype will be a  table with different controls, possibly inspired by a mixer. Placed on the table, the user will find  different blocks (these may vary in material, color or weight) that represent specific sounds. Also,  the prototype will have three different rails, each one representing a music composition aspect  (rhythm, bass and melody). These rails will be activated each time the user place a block on them. The goal is that ...

Two weeks ago we went to Rockheim, our partner in crime for this project, to explore the exhibition-areas and a guided tour of the museum. The museum mainly focuses on norwegian  rock music through the ages, but they have exhibitions that promote other genres as well. The museum has some very creative uses for technology in their exibits, using everything from physical sliders, to RFID and proximity sensors. We’ve gained insight in what is possible to implement as a part of the museum exhibit, and what has already been done. A lot of the exhibits focus on music from a historical perspective, and recreate atmospheres that were part of the experience of music through the years. Still, it’s not hard to imagine an educational music exhibit as a part of the museum, which is a motivational fact! The same goes for our visit to Vitensenteret last week. They have a lot of cool, technical models, most of which are interactive and educational, at least to some extent. The visit to Vitensente...

Team SoundCubed!