3D printed spectrograms
July 1st, 2022In summer 2020, I began a collaboration with my student Grace McEllroy to explore the potential of 3D printing. We wondered if this might be a tool for creating tactile learning aids. The work was motivated by what was then an upcoming project called Young Sound Seekers, taking blind and partially sighted students on excursions to Canaveral National Seashore.
In July 2022, we are presenting our research at the International Computer Music Conference in Limerick, Ireland. The paper focuses on the design process and how the resulting models can be used to teach about specific features of sound. We’ve learned a lot about the process of converting visual representations of recorded sound in tangible models that you can hold in your hand, and we are looking forward to sharing that knowledge with others.
If you are interested in reading this research or printing your own copies of these models, visit the following links:
- Watch our video presentation – 15 minutes
- Download paper in PDF – 280 kb
- Download files for 3D printing from GitHub
Grace & I recently learned that we were awarded “best presentation” for the conference based on voting by the attendees!! Such an honor.
Many thanks to everyone who voted for us. I hope this helps bring attention to the need to develop additional teaching materials and methods that make sound more accessible.