ChinAR: Facilitating Chinese Guqin Learning through Interactive Projected Augmentation

The Guqin, a seven-stringed fretless zither, is the most representative traditional musical instrument in China. However, the complexity of its unique notation and theory has severely limited its popularity in the modern world. With the goal of providing an easy and effective way of learning Guqin, we have created an interactive learning system called ChinAR which employs augmented reality. We have made three main contributions in this paper: (1) a systematic method to design for instrumental learning combing eastern and western musical concepts; (2) a primary validation of the effect of augmented reality in facilitating learning of the Chinese Guqin (3) a natural user interface for the learning system applying gesture detection. The result of user study shows our design is helpful in providing better learning experience and enhancing performance and memorization with markedly less time spent learning. This work shows how a new interface helps promote the use of heritage instruments and culture.