Abstract:

The Bubbles of a Note is a sound visualization instrument to encourage children to play the music with it's visual stimulations, it also provides hearing-impaired individual a chance to play the music and "hear" the sound by visualizing it. Sound visualization is achieved through the movement of bubbles up inside clear acrylic pipes when a bamboo key is hit. The amount of bubbles produced is directly proportional to the intensity of the key strike and corrsponse to the amount of Leds lighings up.

Research Goals:

A. To use the visual appealing interface and sound to attart children to play instrument.
B. To understand the process of designing products for children.

Users Research :

Prototype1

Since the main purpose is to encourage children to play the music so how to make them hit the keyboard with sticks to create sound/ music is the main thing we have to keep in mind while designing the prototype. Hence, we start with doing research of how people's behavior of playing xylophone, and we found out:

1. The users positioned themselves either perpendicular or parallel to the xylophone.
2. Users held the music sticks either tightly or loosely, affecting the quality of the music produced by the bamboo keys.
3. One user pointed out that the different areas of one bamboo key produced different tones.
4. All users were new users and had their eyes on the keyboard.
5. The audience stood around the use and also had their eyes on the keyboard. It seemed that the people around needed some visual feedback while enjoying the music.

Besides,we have chosen to use a Hanging Bamboo Xylophone. The bamboo xylophone is quite different from the typical toy metal xylophones we commonly see. This xylophone has a bamboo base and is hung diagonally. Due to the way it is set up, we figure that it is most comfortable to use the instrument perpendicular to the body. Commonly, it is positioned in front of the musician, parallel to the body.

Prototype2

We enhanced the visual feedback by creating 7 clear acrylic pipes and there will be the bubble that created by the air pump coming up when hitting the key of the xylophone. Each clear acrylic pipe corresponds to one key of the xylophone. When hitting the certain key of the xylophone, the pump that connected to the acrylic pipe will produce bubbles. When hitting light, it produces smal bubbles, when hitting hard, it produces big bubbles.

User Senarios for prototype2:

Users have likes the feedback that when they hitting hit the xylophone and the bubbles will rise up. They will keep playing because they want to see the how the bubbles were produces and they explores it by hitting the xylophone in different ways, light, hard, hit two keys in the same time, ect. We are happy to see the interactivity and we decide to make the interactive more efficient: add the 7 different color of leds and make the stunning visual stimulations. By doing so , we believe they users can have more understanding about the different sound come out of each xolyphone and it will keep them want to learn more with this instrument.

Prototype3

we installed all 49 LEDs (seven LEDS for each acrylic pipe) into the board. The LEDs were mounted on acrylic pillars that were positioned behind each of the cylinders. White wires were used to maintain the harmony in color and clarity of the tool. We use seven different color of LEDs which make it easier to differciante different tone of the xolophone.

User Senarios for prototype3

We had the user's testing in ITP's winter show and Sony Wonder Lab, and we realized that the bubbles and the different colors' LED do attract children's attention and make them want try it. The children hit the xylophone ramdomly at the very beginning, and after learning from how the LEDs blinking (the harder you hit, the more LEDs will light up) and how the bubbles rise up ( the harder you hit, the bigger the bubbles will produce), they start to play it with the methodology and have more fun with it since they know how to produce the music by hitting the tones they want.

Technical Development:

The Bubbles of A Note uses a microcontroller-sensor circuit that interprets vibrations from a key strike into a microchip-to-servomotor command that controls an airvalve knob. The basic circuit includes a PIC microcontroller, a piezo sensor underneath the bamboo key , LEDs mounted behind the cylinders and a servomotor attached to the airvalve controller.

Future Development:

1. Re-arrange the xylophone setup to preserve the original sound quality and to allow the attached sensors to respond independently of each other.

2. Experiment the MIDI or an ampifier to make the sound more clear.