This #CHI2026 paper is now available on the ACM digital library! Find it here: dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

Alongside presenting our paper, I'll also be attending @prosquared.org's "Are We Doing Enough" workshop on Tuesday and the workshop "AI for Haptics and Haptics for AI" on Thursday. See a summary of everything I'm doing at CHI here: davisonaudio.github.io/posts/2026/0...

Matt presenting the CHI paper (with the title screen on the projector) at CockneyCHI on the 24th of March at the Dyson School of Design Engineering library

If you're attending CHI, catch my talk on Wednesday in the “Co-Design in Motion & High-Stakes Contexts” paper session (11:15AM-12:45PM in P1 - Room 111, my talk is 12:03PM). If you're not in Barcelona, catch a video of the presentation at the link above! (preview photo from CockneyCHI 2 weeks ago)

The paper details a design study where we gave digital musical instrument designers a "HaptiCoupler" kit that we created, which can enable simultaneous vibrotactile output and vibration sensing. We discuss the implications of bidirectional tactile interaction on instrument design.

Design Explorations of Instruments and Interactions with Bidirectional Haptic Couplings Exploring the design of digital musical instruments with bidirectional tactile interaction through a user study. This study investigates the potential design and interaction implications when tradional unidirectional mapping paradigms are swapped out for bidirectional haptic interaction.

Next week I'll be at #CHI2026 in Barcelona presenting our paper "Design Explorations of Instruments and Interactions with Bidirectional Haptic Couplings" (by me & @apmcpherson.bsky.social). Read all about it here: davisonaudio.github.io/chi2026/

10 days to go until we have Kathy Hinde visiting the lab for a seminar! Catch the livestream on the day at 2pm UK time using this link: youtube.com/live/3Yv4_33...

Me crouched down with headphones on looking at the recording laptop while Adam is filmed playing his LDTM setup

A table with speakers, audio interface, and recording laptop

The magnetic resonator piano behind a video light

First time recording a piano in a while – and this one was full of electromagnets! Great fun last week recording audio for @apmcpherson.bsky.social's Magnetic Resonator Piano with @xeniapestova.bsky.social playing, along with some fun other Augmented Instruments Lab creations. Videos coming soon!

Delighted that Hannah Spencer and the Greens have won against the divisive hatred peddled by Farage and his cronies, and against the Tories-in-disguise of Labour

One week left to apply to this PhD studentship! Fully funded, covers fees and stipend; UK home student applicants only (due to funder rules).

I'm recruiting a PhD student for autumn 2026 on a project on accessibility in musical instrument design, in partnership with disability arts charities OHMI and Drake Music.

Application deadline 15 February 2026. More info and contact details: liss-dtp.ac.uk/project/inst...

Find all the details (including schematic, audio examples, etc) in the paper here: dafx25.dii.univpm.it/wp-content/u...

We demonstrate the idea by replacing the diodes in a Boss DS-1 distortion pedal with our synthetic impedance system, while keeping the rest of the system in the analog domain. This provides a proof of concept, but there's lots more exciting ideas to explore!

By measuring the voltage at a node and actuating a currently, any two port electrical component (or network of components) can be simulated digitally in an otherwise analog circuit. This presents a customisable electrical impedance to the circuit, which can be reactive, non-linear, etc.

Matt at a podium with a projected title slide behind him, presenting at DAFx conference

Great to have the opportunity to present a paper by @francisco-bernardo.bsky.social, myself, and @apmcpherson.bsky.social at DAFx 2025: "Impedance Synthesis for Hybrid Analog-Digital Audio effects". The work, led by Francisco, integrates digital systems into analog circuits bidirectionally.

NIME 2026 is coming to London! 23-26 June 2026. General chairs Courtney Reed (Loughborough University London, Augmented Instruments Lab alum) and me. More details soon!

The HaptiCoupler demo setup with two HaptiCoupler kits - one standalone and one connected to a host computer, along with an information poster

Great to have demoed the HaptiCoupler kit at #lac2025 yesterday. Lots of great insight and creative ideas from people trying it out. This kit is open source, find all the files (firmware, schematics, PCBs etc.) in the GitHub repo here: github.com/davisonaudio...

It's a device designed for interacting with resonant synthesis models! It can either work standalone (synthesis running on the Teensy) or with a computer running the synthesis (USB audio connection). The device provides vibration feedback from the model as well as simultaneous tactile sensing!

A poster briefly describing the HaptiCoupler kit. The kit uses a Teensy 4.0 and a MAX98389 class D amplifier along with a voice coil transducer.

(2/2) Find out more about the kit at the GitHub repo here: github.com/davisonaudio.... Get in touch if you want to borrow a kit to experiment with!

(1/2) I'll be presenting a demo of the HaptiCoupler device at the Linux Audio Conference in Lyon this week! ( jimlac25.inria.fr ) The HaptiCoupler is an open source kit that enables bidirectional tactile interaction with digital resonant synthesis instruments

PhD opportunity: I'm recruiting a PhD student in digital musical instrument design at Imperial College London. Applications now, start date in the autumn. Funding is limited to UK home students. More topic details to follow. Interested? Email me with a CV! andrew.mcpherson@imperial.ac.uk

First Bsky post, first lab paper of 2025! "On mapping as a technoscientific practice in digital musical instruments" -- a dive on the history and critical implications of mapping theory, with speculation on possible futures. Forthcoming in JNMR: instrumentslab.org/data/andrew/...