Extending Physical Computing On The Reactable

Multi-touch Tangible User Interfaces (MTUI) offer new possibilities for the control of sound and music, but they often lack of effective responsiveness to some musically important gestures such as tapping or pressing force. The proposed project has been aimed at improving the quality of interaction with the Reactable audiovisual MTUI. A prototype system based on force sensing has been developed. The system is able to detect impacts and continuous pressures exerted on the Reactable perimeter in more points at the same time. The system's development has been based on a tight loop between the tuning of the hardware and software, and personal testing of musical control effectiveness. After the description of the peculiarities of the implemented system, a set of new possible Reactable objects is proposed. The developed prototype system opens the door to the further expansion of the Reactable system, allowing for a richer and more enticing music creation experience