Strange Instruments and Environments

Prototypes for musical interaction design in VR. This Unity project shares some code between each prototype. Assets specific to an individual prototype are separated (e.g. CanyonDrum Assets contains code, models, and textures for the Canyon Drum prototype). Each prototype exists within its own scene in Scenes. These scenes can be loaded within the Unity Editor or compiled to be run as standalone.

Strange Instruments

• Canyon Drum: a series of 5 different interaction techniques for playing a drum that's very large and very far away.
• Strange Flute: a synthesizer that is activated by breath into the headset microphone. Distance between your hands controls the pitch, and the relative twist along the flute controls how distorted the timbre is.
• Shred Head: two sets of wiggly wind chimes where individual pieces are held together with virtual springs and play different notes when activated. They can be played with a mallet or by wearing them as wigs and shaking the chimes around.
• Shake Marimba: a marimba that remembers the last note you have hit. The faster you move your hand, the more the "spirit" of the last note it plays echoes throughout the space.

Strange Environments

• Flying / "Crab Surfer": explores alternatives for movement. Swim around the ocean with a superman-like posture -- how far your arms are extended controls how fast you swim. Summon crabs to poke bubbles or throw them at bubbles, which pop with a different sound depending on the speed of the crab at impact. Once they fall to the ocean floor, the crabs begin to roll around and form a colony.
• WheeBox: explores a different launch mechanic than Crab Surfer that shows an estimate of where a slingshot projectile will land. The projectiles make whimsical sounds when thrown, but start to chatter nervously when many accumulate in the box. Once it is heavy enough, the bottom opens out.
• Oh No! Bots: explores the concept of animus, or the sense that virtual creatures have their own desires and autonomy. The robots in this scene don't like to be touched, and so if a projectile hits them or another bot bumps into them, they will squeal and jump backward.