A Mechatronic System for the Visualisation and Analysis of Orchestral Conducting

Abstract

This paper quantitatively analysed orchestral conducting patterns, and detected variations as a result of extraneous body movement during conducting, in the first experiment of its kind. A novel live conducting system featuring data capture, processing, and analysis was developed. Reliable data of an expert conductor's movements was collected, processed, and used to calculate average trajectories for different conducting techniques with various extraneous body movements; variations between extraneous body movement techniques and controlled technique were definitively determined in a novel quantitative analysis. A portable and affordable mechatronic system was created to capture and process live baton tip data, and was found to be accurate through calibration against a reliable reference. Experimental conducting field data was captured through the mechatronic system, and analysed against previously calculated average trajectories; the extraneous movement used during the field data capture was successfully identified by the system.