Automated video analysis of interpersonal entrainment in Indian music performance

Interpersonal entrainment is an important and underexplored feature of musical performance. Better understanding of this phenomenon has important implications for musicology and for the understanding of joint action and coordination from a psychological perspective, and is likely also to be applicable in entertainment, educational, and therapeutic contexts. In order to achieve this, new methods of investigation are needed through which entrainment can be investigated in ecological contexts, keeping time-consuming manual intervention to a minimum. Preliminary research results are presented here on a system for the automated analysis of entrainment, and leadership from video recordings of performances of Indian music. The system is based on the EyesWeb XMI open software platform. The context and aims of the research are discussed along with an analysis of entrainment on the basis of head movements tracked on a video recording.