Hands in action


21 December 2012

Revising the material gathered during the course on Tangible Auditory Interfaces I conducted over the last three weeks, I stumbled over the beauty and diversity of hand movements. I made some research and detailed analysis on this theme earlier in an interaction study, AudioDB, for my dissertation. What was particularly striking in this course is the diversity of hand gestures and movements, some being very unfamiliar.

Below, I collected some video stills and did a detailed description of the shown movements.

(3.12.2012) A young blind participant testing the break-like sound triggering mechanism of a wheel-based drum machine at Resonaari. His hand movement is guided by the inventor of the drum machine who holds the boy’s right hand with a pinch grip to his palm while he operates the break.

(13.12.2012) A student adjusts the weights on a drum-machine he build for the TAI course at Resonaari. He uses his flat right hand and touches the board with the middle finger.

(3.12.2012) A participant with Down’s Syndrome explores a pressure-based ribbon controller connected to a bass sound at Resonaari. While having it placed on his lap. he slides with the tip of his left index finger over the ribbon. With his right hand he fixes the device on his lap and at the same time operates the expression area with the thumb incorporating a slightly altered version of the pinch grip (thumb plus middle finger). The index finger and is not used.

(3.12.2012) A participant with Down’s Syndrome explores a pressure-based ribbon controller connected to a bass sound at Resonaari. He holds the instrument with his left hand at the expression pad area, utilising a slightly altered version of the power grip, allowing him to press the expression pad with his thumb. The right hand’s middle finger is stretched and presses the ribbon.

(3.12.2012) A participant explores a pressure-based ribbon controller connected to a bass sound at Resonaari. He sits in a wheelchair and has the ribbon placed on his lap, holding it delicately with his left hand while touching the active area with his right index finger.

(3.12.2012) Two young blind participants exploring a capacitive-based instrument prototype at Resonaari. The two brothers sit next to each other and have the brick-shaped instrument on their laps. Opposite to them sits the inventor of the instrument and guides the one boy’s right hand on the instrument’s surface.

(13.12.2012) A participant with Down’s Syndrome plays a capacitive-based instrument incorporating pads designed according to the FigureNotes system at Resonaari. He uses both middle fingers to press the pads.

(13.12.2012) A participant plays a capacitive-based instrument incorporating pads designed according to the FigureNotes system at Resonaari. He uses his right thumb and index finger to press the pads. His left hand rests on his lap.