Standstill station

Welcome to the Norwegian championship of Standstill!

The Standstill station is an art-science installation that challenges you to move as little as possible while listening to music. Users put on a pair of headphones and are asked to stand still for 40 seconds while listening to music and silence. The movements are tracked by a small gyro placed inside the headphones, and the movement data is displayed to the user on screen in real-time. After each trial, users can see how well they perform compared to all previous participants.

The exhibit was originally developed by Joachim Poutaraud, Julius Jacoby-Pflug, and Alexander Jensenius in 2023, as part of a collaboration between RITMO Centre of Excellence at the University of Oslo and the Popsenteret museum in downtown Oslo. In 2026, after Popsenteret sadly closed down, the installation was updated and re-vitalized at the Department of Musicology, at the University of Oslo, by Aleksander Tidemann.

This repo contains all the software and the official documentation for the Standstill station, anno 2026.

System overview

The system consists of a large physical structure, a touchscreen computer, and a pair of headphones with a gyroscope. The headphones and gyro are connected to a bridge adapter that is connected to the computer via USB-A and mini-jack (3.5mm).

Software-wise, the standstill station requires three programs:

1. The main Python script ./main.py that handles the UI, data, calculations, and database storage, etc.
2. A bridge application ./Bridgehead.exe that converts and sends the 3D head-tracking data (XYZ) from the gyro to the main Python script via OSC.
3. A local SQL database for handling data.

Installation

1. Download Python v3.11
2. Download SQL and initialize a server-client database.
3. Download Bridgehead v1.19
4. Open Terminal and run:

> cd PATH_TO_STANDSTILL_STATION_FOLDER
> pip install -r requirements.txt

How to Run

This is how to run the installation in the current system configuration.

1. Plug the headphone Ethernet cable into the adapter. Then, on the other side, connect the USB from the adapter to the computer and the mini-jack (3.5mm) into the AC/OUT output on the touchscreen.
2. Select Headphones as the speaker source in BEETRONICS audio settings. This is the touchscreen.
3. Run the bridge application ./Bridgehead.exe. But, before you do, ensure that the “Quaternion (composite)” profile is selected under settings and the tracking rate is set to 10kHz. This should enable the app to send the XYZ gyro data to the Python script over OSC port 8000. To reset the gyro calibration, place the headphones is the correct zero-position and double-click the red head in the bridgehead app interface.
4. Make sure the SQL server is running in the background.
5. Open the Terminal and run:

> cd PATH_TO_STANDSTILL_STATION_FOLDER
> python main.py

Development

In our case, the gyro adapter is stuck to the physical constructions and is therefore unattainable for development and testing elsewhere. However, you can use a simple script I made that simulates XYZ head-tracking movements over OSC for development. This is the ./simulate_head_tracking_for_dev.py script located in the root folder. With this, there is no need for the adapter (gyro and headphones) or the Bridgehead application. Just run the OSC script, then the main Python script.

Also, to check the database connection and make basic test queries, see the ./sql-cheatsheet.py script in the root folder.

Database

The SQL database stores and retrieves data from the Standstill users. The server must be configured so that it runs in the background of the machine from boot. I just use SQL Workbench to set everything up.

The database uses two table structures to store userdata, standstillUser and standstillRealTime. Their schemas are as follows:

TABLE standstillUser 
(
id INT unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
standstillUserID INT unsigned,
age INT unsigned, 
language VARCHAR(2),
musicScore FLOAT, 
silenceScore FLOAT,
feedbackMusic INT unsigned,
feedbackStandstill INT unsigned,
PRIMARY KEY (id)
)

CREATE TABLE standstillRealTime 
(
id INT unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
standstillUserID INT unsigned,
genre VARCHAR(50),
date TIMESTAMP(6) NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(6),
w FLOAT(7,6) NOT NULL, 
PRIMARY KEY (id)  
)

All sensitive database information (usernames, passwords, etc.) is stored in a separate local ./config.yml file. See the ./config.example.yml file for info about how to set this up. Also, to check the database connection and make basic test queries, see the ./sql-cheatsheet.py script in the root folder.

Good luck!