Interactive multimedia and human-computer interaction technologies are effecting and contributing towards a wide range of developments in many different subject areas including contemporary performing arts. These technologies have facilitated the developments and advancements of augmented and virtual instruments for interactive music performance, interactive installation, many aspects of technology-enhanced learning (TEL) and others. These systems typically involve several different digital objects including software as well as data that are necessary for the performance and/or data captured/generated during the performance that may be invaluable to understand the performance. Consequently, the preservation of interactive multimedia systems and performances is an important step to ensure possible future re-performances as well as preserving the artistic style and heritage of the art form. This paper presents the CASPAR framework (developed within the CASPAR EC IST project) for the preservation of interactive multimedia performances (IMP) and introduces an IMP archival system that has been developed based on the CASPAR framework and components. This paper also discusses the main functionalities and validation of the IMP archival system developed.

Multimodal interfaces can open up new possibilities for music education, where the traditional model of teaching is based predominantly on verbal feedback. This paper explores the development and use of multimodal interfaces in novel tools to support music practice training. The design of multimodal interfaces for music education presents a challenge in several respects. One is the integration of multimodal technology into the music learning process. The other is the technological development, where we present a solution that aims to support string practice training with visual and auditory feedback. Building on the traditional function of a physical mirror as a teaching aid, we describe the concept and development of an "augmented mirror" using 3D motion capture technology.

This paper presents a framework called Music via Motion (MvM) designed for the transdomain mapping between physical movements of the performer(s) and multimedia events, translating activities from one creative domain to another-for example, from physical gesture to audio output. With a brief background of this domain and prototype designs, the paper describes a number of inter- and multidisciplinary collaborative works for interactive multimedia performances. These include a virtual musical instrument interface, exploring video-based tracking technology to provide an intuitive and nonintrusive musical interface, and sensor-based augmented instrument designs. The paper also describes a distributed multimedia-mapping server which allows multiplatform and multisensory integrations and presents a sample application which integrates a real-time face tracking system. Ongoing developments and plausible future explorations on stage augmentation with virtual and augmented realities as well as gesture analysis on the correlations of musical gesture and physical gesture are also discussed.