The Sound of Touch [PDF] by David Merrill (Ambient Intelligence Group, MIT Media Lab) and Hayes Raffle (Tangible Media Group, MIT Media Lab):

Introduction: All people have experienced hearing sounds produced when they touch and manipulate different materials. We know what it will sound like to bang our fist against a wooden door, or to crumple a piece of newspaper. We can imagine what a coffee mug will sound like if it is dropped onto a concrete floor. But our wealth of experience handling physical materials does not typically produce much intuition for operating a new electronic instrument, given the inherently arbitrary mapping from gesture to sound.

Approach: The Sound of Touch is a new instrument for real-time capture and sensitive physical stimulation of sound samples using digital convolution. Our hand-held wand can be used to (1) record sound, then (2) playback the recording by brushing, scraping, striking or otherwise physically manipulating the wand against physical objects. During playback, the recorded sound is continuously filtered by the acoustic interaction of the wand and the material being touched. Our texture kit allows for convenient acoustic exploration of a range of materials. The system enables a flexible capture and manipulation of audio that is characteristic of digital tools, but in a direct and physical manner that approaches the continuous experience of manipulating acoustic musical instruments and found objects. The Sound of Touch allows people to leverage their existing intuitions about how different objects will sound when these objects are touched, struck, or otherwise physically manipulated – a feature shared by acoustic instruments and objects from our everyday lives. It is thus a sonic exploration tool that borrows properties from both acoustic and electronic sound creation, bringing them together in a way that incorporates advantages of each. More >> At SIGGRAPH 2007.