Perception of Vibrotactile Cues in Musical Performance

Abstract

We suggest that studies on active touch psychophysics are needed to inform the design of haptic musical interfaces and better understand the relevance of haptic cues in musical performance. Following a review of the previous literature on vibrotactile perception in musical performance, two recent experiments are reported. The first experiment investigated how active finger-pressing forces affect vibration perception, finding significant effects of vibration type and force level on perceptual thresholds. Moreover, the measured thresholds were considerably lower than those reported in the literature, possibly due to the concurrent effect of large (unconstrained) finger contact areas, active pressing forces, and long-duration stimuli. The second experiment assessed the validity of these findings in a real musical context by studying the detection of vibrotactile cues at the keyboard of a grand and an upright piano. Sensitivity to key vibrations in fact not only was highest at the lower octaves and gradually decreased toward higher pitches; it was also significant for stimuli having spectral peaks of acceleration similar to those of the first experiment, i.e., below the standard sensitivity thresholds measured for sinusoidal vibrations under passive touch conditions.

Design and Assessment of Digital Musical Devices Yielding Vibrotactile Feedback

“…An early implementation attempt by some of the present authors claimed possible qualitative relevance of vibrotactile cues Fontana et al (2011). Later, along the same line, ground for a substantial step forward was set when the present authors not only found significant sensitivity to such cues, but also hypothesized that pianists are sensitive to key vibrations also when their amplitude is below the standard subjective thresholds obtained by passively stimulating the human fingertip with purely sinusoidal stimuli ; Verrillo (1971).…”

“…Touch sensors and actuators can be employed first to investigate the joint role of the auditory and somatosensory modalities in the perception of musical instruments, and then to realize novel musical interfaces and instruments, building on the lessons of the previous investigation Marshall and Wanderley (2006); O' Modhrain and Chafe (2000); Overholt et al (2011). Through this process, richer or even unconventional feedback cues can be conveyed to the performer, with the goal of enhancing engagement and improving the initial acceptability and playability of the new musical instrument Birnbaum and Wanderley (2007); Fontana et al (2015); Michailidis and Bullock (2011); Young et al (2017).…”

“…While looking at this pervasive overlap between accurate physical interaction and creative context, this paper summarizes results proposed by the authors over recent years in form of design, application, and evaluation of various digital musical interfaces Fontana et al (2015); Järveläinen et al (2022); Papetti et al ( , 2021. In contrast to most previous studies on the topic, our research aimed to achieve a high level of scientific rigor, with the goal of producing a solid foundation of empirical evidence that can be replicated by other researchers and practitioners.…”

Vocabulary to speak about touch: analysis of the discourse of electric guitar players

“…There are studies on music instruments which deal with the vibratory response of the instrument [8][9][10][11][12][13], in which only the mechanical information is measured and studied, but no perceptual measurement is carried out. Other studies couple the vibratory results with an analysis of vibrotactile feedback in perceptual tests [5,[14][15][16][17]. Even if some of them are based on words assumed to speak about the relation of the musician with the instrument and vibrotactile feedback and potentially the sense of touch, they are no demonstration of the relationship with the sense of touch.…”

Co-Design of Musical Haptic Wearables for Electronic Music Performer's Communication

“…Endeavors in this field include the development of haptic interfaces for music performers (e.g., haptically-enhanced digital musical instruments [2] or tactile notification systems [3], [4], [5]) and music listeners (e.g., haptic devices aiming to enrich the listening musical experience [6]). Some studies focus on analyzing how haptic cues affect musicians' experience and performance [7], [8], [9], [10].…”