PLAY! : Sound Toys For the Non Musical

Analysis of sound pressure levels emitted by children's toys.

OBJECTIVE To verify the levels of sound pressure emitted by non-certified children's toys. METHODS Cross-sectional study of sound toys available at popular retail stores of the so-called informal sector. Electronic, mechanical, and musical toys were analyzed. The measurement of each product was carried out by an acoustic engineer in an acoustically isolated booth, by a decibel meter. To obtai...

PLAY!: Sound Toys for Non-Musicians

In his 1958 essay ‘‘Experimental Music,’’ included in the book Silence (Cage 1961), John Cage talks about the transcendent qualities of creating and enjoying music. As we grow up, we lose serious pursuit of play, the important activity through which children explore and understand the world around us. This is particularly true of music, the appreciation of which has tended to become more conven...

PLAY!: Sound Toys For the Non Musicians

Learning Sounding gestures

Non-visual senses can be used in toys to enhance and enrich the play experience. Previous research has shown that – especially for young children developing sensory-motor skills – exploration and play are two tightly linked activities: everything is new and needs to be “studied”, and playful behaviors emerge from active exploration. The main idea of this paper is to provide a new approach in de...

Musical Toys: Interactive Audio for Non-musicians

This paper describes the design and implementation of interactive sound installations using open source software. Aimed at encouraging an audience of non-musicians to explore electronic sounds, the features identified as the key elements in their design were robustness and responsiveness: an interface that is reliable, intuitive and easy to learn, and yields rich and interesting sounds. The mai...