Haptic carillon: sensing and control in musical instruments

This paper discusses the proposed design of a hapticrendered practice carillon clavier. This instrument will produce a haptic feedback coupled with a responsive bell synthesis algorithm in order to replicate the authentic playing ‘feel’ and sound of a conventional mechanical carillon. An original classification scheme for haptic devices is presented with two principle goals: 1. to forge a conceptual understanding of the nature of a haptically-enabled version of a traditional instrument, and 2. to identify which existing haptic projects contribute towards a technical roadmap for the haptic carillon. Devices surveyed include both musical instruments and other applications that clarify the scope of haptic principles. A distinction is drawn between devices which utilise haptic force-feedback and devices which strongly engage a user’s tactile sense. It is argued that in the latter case, an opportunity for the composer/instrument builder is lost when the relationship between an instrument’s audio response is not linked to a complementary haptic response, as is the case in traditional instruments.