Metaphors are commonly used in interface design within Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Interface metaphors provide users with a way to interact with the computer that resembles a known activity, giving instantaneous knowledge or intuition about how the interaction works. A widely used one in Digital Musical Instruments (DMIs) is the conductor-orchestra metaphor, where the orchestra is considered as an instrument controlled by the movements of the conductor. We propose a DMI based on the conductor metaphor that allows to control tempo and dynamics and adapts its mapping specifically for each user by observing spontaneous conducting movements (i.e., movements performed on top of fixed music without any instructions). We refer to this as mapping by observation given that, even though the systemis trained specifically for each user, this training is not done explicitly and consciously by the user. More specifically, the system adapts its mapping based on the tendency of the user to anticipate or fall behind the beat and observing the Motion Capture descriptors that best correlate to loudness during spontaneous conducting. We evaluate the proposed system in an experiment with twenty four (24) participants where we compare it with a baseline that does not perform this user-specific adaptation. The comparison is done in a context where the user does not receive instructions and, instead, is allowed to discover by playing. We evaluate objective and subjective measures from tasks where participants have to make the orchestra play at different loudness levels or in synchrony with a metronome. Results of the experiment prove that the usability of the system that automatically learns its mapping from spontaneous movements is better both in terms of providing a more intuitive control over loudness and a more precise control over beat timing. Interestingly, the results also show a strong correlation betweenmeasures taken fromthe data used for training and the improvement introduced by the adapting system. This indicates that it is possible to estimate in advance how useful the observation of spontaneous movements is to build user-specific adaptations. This opens interesting directions for creating more intuitive and expressive DMIs, particularly in public installations.@en

Humans have the capacity to invent novel ideas and to create new artifacts that affect the surrounding environment. However, it is unclear how this capacity emerges and develops in biological systems. This paper presents an empirical study which investigates the development of novelty-based cognitive processes in the context of unstructured music-making activities in early childhood. We used principles of intuitive theories of emergence, the paradigm of overlapping waves of mechanisms of change and theories of music cognitive development to theoretically conceptualize the developmental process in the specific context. We applied the methodological principles of micro-genetic analysis for the development of an annotation scheme of micro-behaviors, which correspond to a set of cognitive processes. We took into consideration child's behavioral manifestations of music-induced affective engagement, as an indicator of intrinsic motivation. Our results suggest that the process of transition from spontaneous towards deliberate actions develops through exploratory actions, evaluation of the outcomes, reasoning and planning. The structure of these actions appears in the form of dynamic overlapping waves rather than in a linear or iterative manner. Additionally, our results indicate that children in early years make use of the affordances of the provided tools to scaffold their transition from concrete visual representation of sonic features towards abstract musical thinking, which suggests that musical development appears with the generative tension between action and symbol. Implications and future work are discussed regarding the development of intelligent robotic systems for user adaptive scaffolding of the observed mechanisms of change.@en

This special issue gathers state-of-the-art research on multimedia methods and technologies aimed at enriching music performance, production, and consumption.@en