Evaluation of audio-tactile congruences for a wearable musical interface

The development of wearable technology for tactile-augmented musical experiences is growing, and with it, the need to consider how we may best design tactile effects for the body. Since associations between auditory pitch and spatial elevation are strong across hearing and sight, we evaluated whether the same type of crossmodal correspondence might benefit music experiences across hearing and touch. Twenty-one participants (musicians and non-musicians) wore a wearable tactile device and rated a series of musical audio tactile stimuli based on which they preferred. The musical stimuli were three simple melodies, composed to facilitate the detection of comparatively high and low tones. Note by note, we varied the correspondence of the tactile stimuli’s intensity, timing, and placement along the vertical axis of the back with the auditory stimuli’s intensity, timing, and pitch, respectively. Though we hypothesised that the pitch-height mapping would have a positive effect on participant preference, the results showed that only intensity and timing served as strong predictors for tactile musical enhancement.