Papers by Vijay K Rudraraju
This paper is a review of recent advancements in understanding the way the brain processes music,... more This paper is a review of recent advancements in understanding the way the brain processes music, particularly as it pertains to music’s similarities with language. It is suggested how this improved understanding ought to inform automatic music categorization research.
Poor literacy remains a barrier to economic empowerment in the developing world. We make the case... more Poor literacy remains a barrier to economic empowerment in the developing world. We make the case that "serious games" can make an impact for these learners and highlight that much remains to be learned about designing engaging gameplay experiences for children living in rural areas. Our approach revolves around game design patterns, which are building blocks that can inform game designs. We argue that patterns are beneficial because they facilitate the reuse of existing knowledge about successful games, and can capture contextual information such as domain applicability that has evolve through iterative testing. We describe the design of three mobile games based on patterns and report on a field experiment with rural children in India that evaluated these games against games that were not designed with patterns. We found that patterns are decontextualized design tools that can both help and hinder good designs. We distill lessons on the contextual factors that designers must consider when using patterns to design for this user group. These factors include designing for fun by focusing on the gameplay process and not only the winning conditions, and taking the power structure in local communities into consideration in the game designs.
Thesis Chapters by Vijay K Rudraraju
Digital musical instruments, which are defined here as interactive musical systems containing
a ... more Digital musical instruments, which are defined here as interactive musical systems containing
a control mechanism and a sound generation mechanism, are powerful tools for
analyzing performance practice and for transforming and reimagining the bounds of musical
performance. However, the transitory nature of digital technology and the complexity
of maintaining and configuring a digital musical instrument involving tens, if not hundreds,
of interconnected, discrete components presents a unique problem.
Even the most mechanically complex acoustic musical instruments, like a piano, are
robust enough to withstand the daily grind without expert intervention by someone with
intimate knowledge of the material and mechanical construction of the instrument. Furthermore,
they are standardized enough that repairs can be conducted by any number of
trained professionals. By contrast, digital musical instruments are often configured differently
for each performance (this configurability being one of the virtues of a digital musical
instrument), incorporate any number of non-standard pieces of hardware and software, and
often can only be reliably configured by their creator.
This problem is exacerbated as the number of sensors that make up the control mechanism
in an instrument increases and the interaction of the control mechanism with the
sound generation mechanism grows more complex. This relationship between the control
mechanism and the sound generation mechanism is referred to here as the ”mapping” of
the instrument. The mapping for an instrument represents the aspect of an instrument
that is usually most configurable because it is defined by software (as opposed to hardware)
and also most crucial to the character of the instrument. In the case of a digital
musical instrument, being able to easily configure the musical instrument becomes a point
of artistic freedom in addition to a point of maintainability.
This thesis builds upon work encompassed in two projects at the Input Devices and Musical
Interaction Lab, the Digital Orchestra Project and Libmapper, to tackle the problem
of building an interface/system for configuring a complex musical system without expert
programming skills. The intent is to present a targeted survey of user interface design and
data visualization design research through the years to inform the design of a graphical
user interface for performing this configuration task.
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Papers by Vijay K Rudraraju
Thesis Chapters by Vijay K Rudraraju
a control mechanism and a sound generation mechanism, are powerful tools for
analyzing performance practice and for transforming and reimagining the bounds of musical
performance. However, the transitory nature of digital technology and the complexity
of maintaining and configuring a digital musical instrument involving tens, if not hundreds,
of interconnected, discrete components presents a unique problem.
Even the most mechanically complex acoustic musical instruments, like a piano, are
robust enough to withstand the daily grind without expert intervention by someone with
intimate knowledge of the material and mechanical construction of the instrument. Furthermore,
they are standardized enough that repairs can be conducted by any number of
trained professionals. By contrast, digital musical instruments are often configured differently
for each performance (this configurability being one of the virtues of a digital musical
instrument), incorporate any number of non-standard pieces of hardware and software, and
often can only be reliably configured by their creator.
This problem is exacerbated as the number of sensors that make up the control mechanism
in an instrument increases and the interaction of the control mechanism with the
sound generation mechanism grows more complex. This relationship between the control
mechanism and the sound generation mechanism is referred to here as the ”mapping” of
the instrument. The mapping for an instrument represents the aspect of an instrument
that is usually most configurable because it is defined by software (as opposed to hardware)
and also most crucial to the character of the instrument. In the case of a digital
musical instrument, being able to easily configure the musical instrument becomes a point
of artistic freedom in addition to a point of maintainability.
This thesis builds upon work encompassed in two projects at the Input Devices and Musical
Interaction Lab, the Digital Orchestra Project and Libmapper, to tackle the problem
of building an interface/system for configuring a complex musical system without expert
programming skills. The intent is to present a targeted survey of user interface design and
data visualization design research through the years to inform the design of a graphical
user interface for performing this configuration task.