MUSE: Understanding Traditional Dances

Muqeem Khan Northwestern University in Qatar

muuqeem@usa.net

ABSTRACT

This demo encapsulates the possible manifestation of Middle Eastern indigenous dance, Al Ardha, in the form of a serious gaming environment. The presentation also illustrates the interconnection and possible transformation of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) content, such as traditional dances, into a digital kinesthetic learning system. The system is called Mimicry Understanding and Safeguarding Environment (MUSE). It is designed to help museum visitors learn traditional or indigenous dances with the help of motion-sensing technologies. MUSE is a multidisciplinary research project and is expected to analyze the intricacies of various indigenous dances, particularly the Arabic sword dance. MUSE interface is expected to facilitate museum visitors’ awareness, learning, and practice of the Al Ardha dance of the Middle Eastern region. Through its easy-to-learn and user-friendly interface, MUSE can facilitate and foster playfulness and user engagement to enhance the experience of museum visitors.

Keywords: Virtual Reality, Motion Sensing, Heritage, Culture, Augmented Reality, Digital Humanities, Virtual Museums, Intangible Cultural Heritage, Cultural Dances, Cultural Studies.

1 INTRODUCTION These days, novel interactivity can be seen among individual,

social, and communal spaces with the use of new gadgets and the latest sensors. Computer vision- and motion-sensing technologies have enabled users to interact physically and kinesthetically with the digital environment in many more ways. However, museums around the world are just beginning to adopt these new forms of interactive exhibits. A number of digital interventions inside museums have already opened up new boundaries for investigation and exploration in which a scholar can address new forms of digital culture and their various impacts on socio-economic and socio-cultural situations. The hybrid combination of these new tools with traditional art forms have also required that researchers investigate inter-disciplinary issues that can drive new theoretical models. MUSE will examine unconventional ways in which Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) content can be presented and perpetuated in a heritage-related environment [1]. This simple and intriguing set-up inside the museum can easily stimulate multifaceted and multidimensional curiosities among museum visitors. Hence, they not only see the heritage content, but also interact with it kinesthetically [2].

Figure 1: Inter-disciplinary study for museum professionals.

2 OBJECTIVES There are three objectives related to this proposed investigation:

- Is it possible to generate added value through the use of motion-detecting technology in fabricating emerging exhibits for cultural spaces?

- How do motion-detecting technologies enhance visitor engagement inside museums?

- What are the ways in which motion-detecting technology-based ICH content can be made re-usable and transferable?

3 DISCUSSION Al Ardha is a famous traditional dance in the Arabian Peninsula, shown in figure 2. This study will examine the process and methods whereby the Al-Ardha dance can be transferred from the traditional to the digital domain. This museum installation will inaugurate a new form of heritage representation with a non-linear and interactive user interface that can go beyond conventional screen-based cultural representations. The initial prototype is intended to embed an artificial intelligence-based dance instructor in a virtual environment. This dance instructor will be the key visual cue for visitors to interact with the prototype and learn the Al Ardha dance. This prototype will be assessed in a controlled museum environment to evaluate the efficacy of motion-sensing technology inside museums, the interaction of museum visitors with the exhibit, and visitors’ learning outcomes.

Figure 2: An anticipated inter-disciplinary study for museum professionals.

Various technology-based installations have been introduced into museums of late. However, they do not promote ICH content as much as they can. Moreover, there are displays and screens for visitors to watch, but there is not much scope for visitors to interact with the exhibits in a playful manner. These exhibits do not fully exploit a serious gaming environment and, therefore, users do not learn indigenous practices, dances, and so forth. These conventional installations rely heavily on simple visuals, which present some ICH-related content in a linear fashion. For that reason, complex ways of learning about the past and opportunities to acquire and perpetuate cultural heritage are not common in museum settings. On the other hand, museums around the world are increasingly exploring intangible aspects of culture besides tangible ones; moving attention from the visible to the

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IEEE Virtual Reality 201429 March - 2 April, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA978-1-4799-2871-2/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE

invisible. This new shift can be easily extended with the help of emerging technologies such as motion-capturing technology. The author has been exploring various forms of ICH content, such as calligraphy, indigenous practices, and traditional dances, with available and emerging motion-sensing technologies. He has also presented some of his work at the TED@Doha conference in 2012. Videos of this TED talk can be found at: http://talentsearch.ted.com/video/Muqeem-Khan-Playful-technology;TEDDoha The conception of a virtual Al Ardha tutorial is also an extension of some preliminary studies related to Australian aboriginal dance, videos of which can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r32o50nTIG0 Initially, a two-dimensional application, “Aboriginal Dance for Kids” has been fabricated and evaluated as a scoping study with 30 children, aged 6-12 (23 female, 27 male) [3]. It was noted that they were predominantly pleased with the application and found the content enjoyable. Since the avatar was a two-dimensional interactive puppet and the user could not see the avatar in a three-dimensional format, the range of movements were very limited and they felt frustrated while turning right or left. They could not rotate the puppet, as shown in Figure 3. For that reason, a 3D game engine was required, together with an appropriate avatar and virtual environment.

Figure 3: Scoping study with children for the preliminary application

For this 2D application, the object-orientated programming language Quartz Composer (QC) was used with some Java and Objective-C patches. While using QC, limitations related to the true 3D environment were noted and the Unity 3D gaming environment was deployed to perceive the full three-dimensional experience. Moreover, Apple has stopped developing QC in their new operating systems, so it was important to migrate to an available 3D gaming environment such as Unity 3D that offers multi-platform tools for user interactivity with better file transfer protocols with applications such as Autodesk Maya, Studio Max and Blender. With current and available skeleton-joint limitations, such as neck and ankle joints, in Microsoft Kinect, the application is still limited in its ability to respond fully with users’ actions and positions. However, it is anticipated that the new Kinect device from Microsoft will resolve many of these challenges [4].

4 METHODS In this application, participants will first calibrate with the

avatar and then look at the six basic steps related to the Al Ardha dance on the screen. These dance steps would help the participant

to perform and interact with the avatar. Participants can also see an Al Ardha dance video in a small window on the screen.

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of the screen represents the MUSE environment.

5 CONCLUSION The motion-sensing technology-based exhibit, MUSE, has been

developing gradually and initial studies are in progress. Cultural artefacts, costumes, gadgets, and various digital environments are in the testing and evaluation phase. New Microsoft Kinect and other sensors will be tested for the future prototype to enhance the application and user interaction. New instructions inside the game engine are also being tested and various cultural graphics are incorporated based on user interaction. Problems and possible solutions related to user interaction, latency, and perceptions are being documented during this ideation phase of the project. Important data will be collected from further user studies and technology efficacy, impact, and various sustainability issues will be evaluated in the context of ICH.

6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This Research Demo was made possible by NPRP grant # 6-364-5-030 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the author.

7 REFERENCES

[1] Lazzeretti, L., Cominelli, F., & Greffe, X. (2012). Intangible cultural heritage: Safeguarding for creativity. City, Culture and Society, 3(4), 245–250. doi:10.1016/j.ccs.2012.10.003

[2] Reed, K. B., Peshkin, M., Hartmann, M. J., Colgate, J. E., & Patton, J. (2005). Kinesthetic interaction. 9th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, 2005. ICORR 2005. doi:10.1109/ICORR.2005.1502027

[3] Khan, M. & de Byl, P. (2011) Preserving the Past with Toys of the Future, ASCILLITE 2011, Hobart. Australia.

[4] Zhang, Z. (2012). Microsoft Kinect Sensor and Its Effect. IEEE Multimedia. doi:10.1109/MMUL.2012.24

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