Acoustic localization of tactile interactions for the development of novel tangible interfaces

In this paper we propose different acoustic array processing methods for the localization of tactile interactions with planar surfaces. The aim is to create a new class of tangible interfaces for musical performance that can be obtained by simply applying sensors on existing surfaces. The solutions considered in this paper are mainly based on the measurement and the analysis of the Time-Delay-Of-Arrival (TDOA) over a set of contact sensors, placed around the area of potential contact, and allows us to rapidly localize tactile interactions with reasonable accuracy.