Physics-based Music Visualization

Information

• Publication Type: Bachelor Thesis
• Workgroup(s)/Project(s):
  • Rendering and Modeling
• Date: December 2013
• Date (Start): 15. October 2012
• Date (End): 20. December 2013
• Matrikelnummer: 0725136
• First Supervisor:
  • Michael Wimmer
  • Stefan Ohrhallinger
• Keywords: sound, visualization, physics-based

Abstract

The aim of our bachelor thesis was to develop a concept on the basic structure of software that visualizes human emotions when listening to music into graphic primitives. Our prototype of this visual media player allows the user to read data from a music file and map this data into a file that converts it to special forms, colors and transformations. This goal was accomplished with special commands and a modifiable theme. With these tools, the user can completely control the visualization. The commands describe the options of what can be accomplished with the software. In our case, they create primitive forms, move them, and change their color. The theme shows what the program is able to display. Two examples of this prototype are the textual theme and the graphical theme. In the first user study, the users were asked to listen to short music files or watch some short animations and to evaluate those. This data was then transferred to a mapping file and taken as basis for a second user study. In the second user study, the users had to evaluate five media players, including ours, using two different mappings - one was their visualization and the other an evaluation on if music and visualization match. The results were not as expected - the users evaluated the existing media players better than our prototype in visualization-music mapping. We are analyzing the results and working on redesigning our algorithms in order to have a more successful prototype. In this bachelor thesis, there is also an analysis of the libraries used. The prototype can be used as a basis for future work in this field.

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BibTeX

@bachelorsthesis{schmid_andreas_2013-prj,
  title =      "Physics-based Music Visualization",
  author =     "Andreas Schmid",
  year =       "2013",
  abstract =   "The aim of our bachelor thesis was to develop a concept on
               the basic structure of software that visualizes human
               emotions when listening to music into graphic primitives.
               Our prototype of this visual media player allows the user to
               read data from a music file and map this data into a file
               that converts it to special forms, colors and
               transformations. This goal was accomplished with special
               commands and a modifiable theme. With these tools, the user
               can completely control the visualization. The commands
               describe the options of what can be accomplished with the
               software. In our case, they create primitive forms, move
               them, and change their color. The theme shows what the
               program is able to display. Two examples of this prototype
               are the textual theme and the graphical theme. In the first
               user study, the users were asked to listen to short music
               files or watch some short animations and to evaluate those.
               This data was then transferred to a mapping file and taken
               as basis for a second user study. In the second user study,
               the users had to evaluate five media players, including
               ours, using two different mappings - one was their
               visualization and the other an evaluation on if music and
               visualization match. The results were not as expected - the
               users evaluated the existing media players better than our
               prototype in visualization-music mapping. We are analyzing
               the results and working on redesigning our algorithms in
               order to have a more successful prototype. In this bachelor
               thesis, there is also an analysis of the libraries used. The
               prototype can be used as a basis for future work in this
               field.",
  month =      dec,
  address =    "Favoritenstrasse 9-11/E193-02, A-1040 Vienna, Austria",
  school =     "Institute of Computer Graphics and Algorithms, Vienna
               University of Technology ",
  keywords =   "sound, visualization, physics-based",
  URL =        "https://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2013/schmid_andreas_2013-prj/",
}