Abstract: An interactive music system (10) in accordance with various aspects of the invention lets a user control the playback of recorded music according to gestures entered via an input device (14), such as a mouse. The system includes modules which interpret input gestures made on a computer input device and adjust the playback of audio data in accordance with input gesture data. Various methods for encoding sound information in an audio data produce with meta-data indicating how it can be varied during playback are also disclosed. More specifically, a gesture input system receives user input from a device, such as a mouse, and interprets this data as one of a number of predefined gestures which are assigned an emotional or interpretive meaning according to a “character” hierarchy or library (16) of gesture descriptions. The received gesture inputs are used to alter the character of music which is being played in accordance with the meaning of the gesture.

Abstract: An interactive music system in accordance with various aspects of the invention lets a user control the playback of recorded music according to gestures entered via an input device, such as a mouse. The system includes modules which interpret input gestures made on a computer input device and adjust the playback of audio data in accordance with input gesture data. Various methods for encoding sound information in an audio data produce with meta-data indicating how it can be varied during playback are also disclosed. More specifically, a gesture input system receives user input from a device, such as a mouse, and interprets this data as one of a number of predefined gestures which are assigned an emotional or interpretive meaning according to a “character” hierarchy or library of gesture descriptions. The received gesture inputs are used to alter the character of music which is being played in accordance with the meaning of the gesture.