Title: On the detection of the level of attention in an orchestra through head movements

Authors: Giorgio Gnecco; Donald Glowinski; Antonio Camurri; Marcello Sanguineti

Addresses: IMT - Institute for Advanced Studies, Piazza S. Ponziano 6, 55100 Lucca, Italy; DIBRIS Department, University of Genoa, Via Opera Pia, 13, 16145 Genova, Italy ' NEAD - Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences, Campus Biotech - Uni Dufour, Rue Général Dufour 24, 1211 Genève 4, Switzerland; DIBRIS Department, University of Genoa, Via Opera Pia, 13, 16145 Genova, Italy ' DIBRIS Department, University of Genova, Via Opera Pia, 13, 16145 Genova, Italy ' DIBRIS Department, University of Genova, Via Opera Pia, 13, 16145 Genova, Italy

Abstract: Results from a study of non-verbal social signals in an orchestra are presented. Music is chosen as an example of interactive and social activity, where non-verbal communication plays a fundamental role. The orchestra is adopted as a social group with a clear leader (the conductor) of two groups of musicians (the first and second violin sections). It is shown how a reduced set of simple movement features - head movements - can be used to measure the levels of attention of the musicians with respect to the conductor and the music stand under various conditions (different conductors/pieces/sections of the same piece).

Keywords: automated analysis; behavioural analysis; non-verbal behaviour; head ancillary gestures; levels of attention; orchestral behaviour; head movements; orchestras; non-verbal social signals; non-verbal communication; social groups; music conductors; musicians.

DOI: 10.1504/IJART.2014.066452

International Journal of Arts and Technology, 2014 Vol.7 No.4, pp.316 - 338

Received: 15 Jun 2013
Accepted: 22 Sep 2013
Published online: 31 Dec 2014 *

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