Reimagining “Talempong” as a Digital Musical Interface

This paper describes the design and development of a mobile instrument interface inspired by an Indonesian percussion called ‘Talempong’. The digital ‘talempong’ is implemented as an iPhone application exploring its movement sensors to stimulate physical playing gesture of the ‘Talempong’; the mobile phone acts as the stick to play the instrument. Using its iPhone motions sensors, the application use an algorithm to detect a hit in real-time. Once detected, the hit is extracted and mapped to synthesise a ‘talempong’ sound according to the playing gesture. Additionally, visual and haptic feedback are provided using visual cues and device vibration.