Hello and welcome to our presentation about TempoWatch, a wearable music control interface
for dance instructors. My name is Josef, I'm student at the Bauhaus-University in Weimar
and I'm glad to present our paper as part of this event. So, let's start!
During dance lessons instructors often need to control the playback of dance music
while simultaneously engaging the class by demonstrating,
evaluating, and correcting the movements of the students.
Depending on the current dance style and the individual skill level of the class,
instructors might want to change the music selection or even the playback speed on the fly.
However, most current solutions for music playback in dance classrooms consist only of
a standard stereo deck with CD and MP3 playback capability. Therefore, these solutions are only
partially suited to the specific requirements of a dance lesson. For example, any change of playback
parameters like pausing the music requires the instructor to walk to the control panel;
thereby, losing both their current posts and their focus on the students. Infrared remote controls
are cumbersome to carry and aim quickly well down from heavy usage or simply are lost.
Also, only specialized and therefore more expensive decks offer the ability to control
playback tempo which is necessary to allow beginners to learn complex step sequences
at a lower speed first before ramping up to the native speed of the music piece.
To address these issues we present TempoWatch, a wearable smartwatch-based interface which allows
dance instructors to control all relevant playback parameters eyes-free directly on their wrist.
TempoWatch consists of a regular android app for the instructor's smartphone which
is connected to the stereo deck or amplifier in the classroom;
and an additional android wear app to be installed on the smartwatch.
Commands are sent via bluetooth low energy and control playback of the music collection stored on
the smartphone including volume, track selection, pausing, and playback speed via time stretching.
The fundamental goal of our development process was to create an interface which distracts both,
instructor and students, as little as possible from the dance lesson itself, while still allowing
unencumbered movement and quick reactions to the teaching situation of the instructor.
Consequently, the main interface on the smartwatch offers only three major functions: firstly,
pause continue playback; secondly, adjust playback speed; and thirdly, the track information.
The focus of TempoWatch is the control of the playback speed adjustment in a comfortable,
unlimited, and eyes-free way. This is supported by a circular gesture on the whole touchscreen
to in- and decrease the tempo. The input movement bases on the rotation of a turntable.
To get a better idea of TempoWatch's usage,
I prepared some video snippets of a private dance lesson for you.
-Instructor: "Okay, let's increase the tempo."
-Instructor: "Can you close your feet, please?" -Student: "Yeah, sure. I forgot it again."
-Instructor: "It's like backward, close, forward; okay?" -Student: "Yes, I see!" -Instructor: "Great, let’s repeat with the music."
-Instructor: "5, 6, 7, and…"
-Instructor: "Well, in this situation, you could try to dance into the diagonal instead of straight forward into the lady ..."
-Instructor: "I show you: basic step and then the ladies turn."
-Instructor: "For the lady, it will be easier to handle. Okay; now try this together, please."
With our prototype we conducted a qualitative study with nine dance instructors who used
TempoWatch during their classes. Results from the study show that TempoWatch can be learned quickly
and has a positive influence on the time spent for music management and the overall immersion
level of the class. For the dance students using TempoWatch resulted in an increased
presence of the instructor as no interruptions for music management where necessary anymore.
Based on our observations during the evaluation we will consider introducing a one touch button,
to temporarily reduce the music volume while held down for brief instructions to the whole class.
Moreover, we plan to explore other use cases in the future: for example, athletes listening to music
while working out or running might also benefit from easily excessively temporal control to adjust
the playback speed to match their workout.
When we stay in the scene of a classroom, figure skater on
ice or musicians learning a new instrument can benefit from revised TempoWatch system also.
We are planning to conduct additional evaluations after dance schools reopen
in the future to collect quantitative data, too.
Thank you very much for your attention!