Music as a game controller

Abstract

An educational game was developed in which the game is controlled by the sounds produced by an acoustic instrument. In order to allow a musical signal to be used for game control, new Digital Signal Processing algorithms were developed for extracting pitch information from the musical performance of a single instrument or singer. These algorithms provide more accurate pitch determination, using fewer time-domain samples, than existing methods. They also reflect the psychoacoustics of pitch perception. The game was evaluated for its usefulness with a number of musical instruments and voice, with the help of University of Calgary student volunteers, using a qualitative case study methodology.