Latency Tolerance for Gesture Controlled Continuous Sound Instrument Without Tactile Feedback

Abstract

This paper reports the results of an experimental study of human latency tolerance for gestural sound control without tactile feedback. 16 subjects played a Theremin that was routed through an adjustable delay buffer. It was found that when comparing to a reference with no latency, the just noticeable difference (JND) is between 20 and 30 milliseconds. After that, the probability of detecting latency increases linearly. It was also found that playing style strongly affects the detection of latency. When playing slow passages with vibrato, even high latencies were not noticed. The results also suggest that younger subjects detect latencies more accurately than older subjects. However, the subjects ’ activity with music and musical background did not seem to have an effect. 1

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