Airstic Drum: A Drumstick for Integration of Real and Virtual Drums

Abstract

Drum kits consist of various kinds of percussion instruments. As all percussion instruments are large and heavy, they are inconvenient for drummers to carry and set up. Virtual drums, which include motion sensors and enable drummers to imitate playing drums by stroking a virtual drum, are highly portable. However, drummers, who are used to playing real drums, have difficulty in demonstrating their drum skills with virtual drums because of the lack of feedback from stroking, low sound quality, and so on. Our proposed Airstic Drum achieves high portability and performance quality by integrating real and virtual drums. Airstic Drum can distinguish the stroking of virtual drums from the stroking of real drums, and it outputs digital sound only when the drummer strokes virtual drums. We have developed a prototype system and evaluated its effectiveness by actual use.