Ambisonic Mixing Bowl

Ambisonic Mixing Bowl

Nick Gang, Wisam Reid

This project seeks to provide spatial audio artists and engineers with a tactile interface for real-time ambisonic panning. Users move and rotate physical magnetic objects around the surface of an acrylic dome. Positions and angles of rotation are tracked with an under-mounted camera and lighting system, processed with reacTIVision’s open source computer vision software, and sent to Spat to control the spatialization. The dome’s spherical shape mimics possible source locations surrounding the listener. The sound source symbols inform the user of the state of the system, and allow for immediate changes in three dimensions with one gesture.

Git Repo:

mixingbowl

Research Links:

Code:

Materials:

Initial Sketch:

Progress Update 1:

Camera comes in + initial Max interface
For visual feedback swapped out sliders of pictslider (x/y)

Stealing kitchen bowl as stand-in for dome, ordered acryllic hemisphere
Mounting camera module to cardboard box so it points straight up
Using larger box to prop up bowl higher
- trying to find optimal height above camera
Starting to test effect of lighting on performance

Plugging x/y/rotation data into Spat, rotation controlling yaw
Testing two sources simultaneously, using noise for sound sources

Sketching out box that will hold camera and lighting
- Thinking of wood with lip that bowl can sit on
- Lip could have FSRs to measure pressure on bowl

Progress Update #2:

Building the Box Top

Chose stainless IKEA bowl as vac form buck
Attempt 1:
- Holes drilled in plywood square weren’t big enough
- no suction around edge of bowl (second picture below).
Attempts 2-5:
- Tossed plywood, placed bowl directly on platform
- Increased heat in outer regions, they need to stretch more
- Realized the bowl gets stuck in the acrylic. Had to make small crack to get it out