Earlier this month, we at the Integra Lab attended the Audio Developers Conference at the CodeNode, London. ADC began as the JUCE summit, a conference hosted by ROLI for users of the JUCE framework and audio developers to extend their knowledge on audio application development and software design. Over the past two years, this has extended to developers from across the industry and those in academia a stage to provide leading coverage of the audio technology industry. Both myself (Jefferson Bledsoe) and Balandino Di Donato attended the conference on behalf of the Integra Lab to present Myo Mapper in the poster area of the conference.
Myo Mapper was presented at ADC 2017 as part of the poster area. As part of my research internship, I have worked extensively on Myo Mapper to rewrite the front-end UI whilst simultaneously editing and extending the current code base to provide a clearer foundation for future improvements to be made to the software. Some key changes to the software include an updated colour scheme which closely matches the Myo Mapper branding, a new window system for a more refined user experience and new data extraction features for more advanced control of the Myo data.
One of the key trends throughout this years conference is that of machine learning and it’s applications throughout the world of audio. Brecht De Man – a researcher at the Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary – explored how the current music production workflow can be augmented through applying HCI research, crowd sourcing and machine learning to various elements of the workflow to aid in the creation of ‘smart interfaces’. This research is crucial to the future of audio production environments, as it lays the foundation for creating elements which can respond to the way the user interacts with their environment. Michael Zbyszyński’s talk on the RapidMix machine learning API from Goldsmiths further cements the growing popularity of machine learning by demonstrating an easy to use framework for working with complex data. This framework bridges the gap for artists and musicians who may not have the time to explore the often complex field of machine learning or programming by providing a quick to setup and easy to use programming interface.
Another key focus noticeable throughout ADC was that of the user experience. Tim Adnitt gave an insightful talk on Making Computer Music Creation Accessible To A Wider Audience where he discussed the current accessibility features integrated into Komplete Kontrol, paying particular attention to the feature set for the visually impaired. One of the most interesting talks regarding the user experience was given by Phoenix Perry on how physical play give people a stronger sense of human connection. This talk explored how the use of the physical world and sensors combined with software and machine learning could be used to manipulate and interact with human emotions. Phoenix Perry’s talk gave a unique outlook on the way we interact with technology as well as investigating the often overlooked social elements involved within HCI.
New to the conference this year was the JUCE award, an open competition for all products – both closed and open source – made with JUCE where the public were able to vote for their favourite software. Due to the strong support from the Myo Mapper community and those within the domain of Human-Computer Interaction, Myo Mapper received the most votes and won the award.