Sensory Perception & Interaction, Research Group

Disc Jockeys (DJs) use creative methods to play pre-recorded music at social events. Their tools, however, are relatively archaic and there is a desire for advanced equipment with the capacity to increase the level of creativity involved in a DJ's performance. The overall goal of the work described here is to create an advanced DJ system that promotes creativity, allows control of digital music and improves upon previous DJ tools. This thesis begins with an analysis of DJs using conventional tools and procedures, followed by a discussion of previous attempts to upgrade DJ technology. These findings led to our first prototype controller, D'Groove, a novel digital DJ system with haptic, visual and auditory interaction. Experienced DJs from a variety of specializations tested our prototype, resulting in useful feedback and the discovery of some exciting new expressive uses that we had not intended. They discussed the technological needs and wants of the next generation of DJs, providing input to our user-centered design strategy. While D'Groove is for DJs, the experiences of our experts provide insight to the general problem of interacting with digital media streams. The main contributions of this thesis are a description of the processes and tools used by DJs; the design and evaluation of D'Groove, an advanced user-oriented haptic DJ system for manipulating digital music; and a summary of guidelines for manipulating digital audio in general.