Eye Tapping : How to Beat Out an Accurate Rhythm using Eye Movements

Rasmus Bååth, Thomas Strandberg, and Christian Balkenius

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to investigate how well subjectsbeat out a rhythm using eye movements and to establishthe most accurate method of doing this. Eighteen subjectsparticipated in an experiment were five different methodswere evaluated. A fixation based method was found to bethe most accurate. All subjects were able to synchronizetheir eye movements with a given beat but the accuracywas much lower than usually found in finger tapping studies. Many parts of the body are used to make music but sofar, with a few exceptions, the eyes have been silent. The research presented here provides guidelines for implementingeye controlled musical interfaces. Such interfaces would enable performers and artists to use eye movement for musicalexpression and would open up new, exiting possibilities.

Citation:

Rasmus Bååth, Thomas Strandberg, and Christian Balkenius. 2011. Eye Tapping : How to Beat Out an Accurate Rhythm using Eye Movements. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1177947

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{Baath2011,
 abstract = {The aim of this study was to investigate how well subjectsbeat out a rhythm using eye movements and to establishthe most accurate method of doing this. Eighteen subjectsparticipated in an experiment were five different methodswere evaluated. A fixation based method was found to bethe most accurate. All subjects were able to synchronizetheir eye movements with a given beat but the accuracywas much lower than usually found in finger tapping studies. Many parts of the body are used to make music but sofar, with a few exceptions, the eyes have been silent. The research presented here provides guidelines for implementingeye controlled musical interfaces. Such interfaces would enable performers and artists to use eye movement for musicalexpression and would open up new, exiting possibilities.},
 address = {Oslo, Norway},
 author = {B\aa\aath, Rasmus and Strandberg, Thomas and Balkenius, Christian},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.1177947},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 keywords = {Rhythm, Eye tracking, Sensorimotor synchronization, Eye tapping },
 pages = {441--444},
 title = {Eye Tapping : How to Beat Out an Accurate Rhythm using Eye Movements},
 url = {http://www.nime.org/proceedings/2011/nime2011_441.pdf},
 year = {2011}
}