Hydraulophone Design Considerations: Absement, Displacement, and Velocity-Sensitive Music Keyboard in Which Each Key Is a Water Jet
Hydraulophone Design Considerations: Absement, Displacement, and Velocity-Sensitive Music Keyboard in which each key is a Water Jet Steve Mann, Ryan Janzen, Mark Post University of Toronto, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Toronto, Ontario, Canada For more information, see http://funtain.ca ABSTRACT General Terms We present a musical keyboard that is not only velocity- Measurement, Performance, Design, Experimentation, Hu- sensitive, but in fact responds to absement (presement), dis- man Factors, Theory placement (placement), velocity, acceleration, jerk, jounce, etc. (i.e. to all the derivatives, as well as the integral, of Keywords displacement). Fluid-user-interface, tangible user interface, direct user in- Moreover, unlike a piano keyboard in which the keys reach terface, water-based immersive multimedia, FUNtain, hy- a point of maximal displacement, our keys are essentially draulophone, pneumatophone, underwater musical instru- infinite in length, and thus never reach an end to their key ment, harmelodica, harmelotron (harmellotron), duringtouch, travel. Our infinite length keys are achieved by using water haptic surface, hydraulic-action, tracker-action jet streams that continue to flow past the fingers of a per- son playing the instrument. The instrument takes the form 1. INTRODUCTION: VELOCITY SENSING of a pipe with a row of holes, in which water flows out of KEYBOARDS each hole, while a user is invited to play the instrument by High quality music keyboards are typically velocity-sensing, interfering with the flow of water coming out of the holes. i.e. the notes sound louder when the keys are hit faster. The instrument resembles a large flute, but, unlike a flute, Velocity-sensing is ideal for instruments like the piano, there is no complicated fingering pattern.
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