Playful Audio-Visual Interaction with Spheroids

This paper presents a novel interactive system for creating audio-visual expressions on tabletop display by dynamically manipulating solids of revolution called spheroids. The four types of basic spinning and rolling movements of spheroids are recognized from the physical conditions such as the contact area, the location of the centroid, the (angular) velocity, and the curvature of the locus all obtained from sensor data on the display. They are then used for interactively generating audio-visual effects that match each of the movements. We developed a digital content that integrated these functionalities and enabled composition and live performance through manipulation of spheroids.