Medialogy at Aalborg University Copenhagen are showing the EcoPlayer, an interactive tabletop for exploration of animal sounds, as part of Science i Zoo - a science exhibition at the Copenhagen Zoo.

Scientists are interested in changing and exploring animals sounds in order to understand them better. The EcoPlayer, or Ecological Audio Environment, is a device for experimenting with animal sounds. In this exhibition, users move blocks to modify location, pitch, tonality, and range, which allows one to explore changes in sounds made by animals. Modern computer vision is used to track the positions of the blocks on the table, which changes features in the sound.

The table consists of a set of blocks for each animal. Moving the animal blocks around changes their perceived spatial relation to you. Another set of blocks allows the user experiment with changing the timbre, or character, of the sound. Internally, the table uses computer vision (reacTIVision-http://reactivision.sourceforge.net/) to detect and track the blocks. On the bottom of each block is a different pattern, or fiducial, which a camera inside the table can see and track. The position and rotation of these fiducials are recognized, which are then mapped to changes in sound.