beacon : Embodied Sound Media Environment for Socio-Musical Interaction

This research aims to develop a novel instrument for sociomusical interaction where a number of participants can produce sounds by feet in collaboration with each other. Thedeveloped instrument, beacon, is regarded as embodied soundmedia product that will provide an interactive environmentaround it. The beacon produces laser beams lying on theground and rotating. Audio sounds are then produced whenthe beams pass individual performer's foot. As the performers are able to control the pitch and sound length accordingto the foot location and angles facing the instrument, theperformer's body motion and foot behavior can be translated into sound and music in an intuitive manner.