VRIMM: VR Inclusive Music Making, Northern Ireland

虚拟现实技术开始变得更加实惠，用户已经开始投资于成本相对较低的VR眼镜来体验虚拟世界。目前，大多数音乐VR体验都允许用户在虚拟现实中观看音乐会或参加音乐节。许多虚拟现实应用程序都是被动体验，让你沉浸在虚拟世界中，看着别人制作音乐，例如MelodyVR或VRTIFY，你可以360度观看音乐会，或者TheWaveVR，让你在虚拟现实中体验音乐节。很少有VR应用能让用户亲自动手。Music Room是一个例外，因为它允许用户演奏乐器，但它需要昂贵的VR设置。这些虚拟现实应用程序的一个主要问题是，它们是为健全的人设计的。这意味着你需要能够使用手部控制器，这需要精确的控制，触发声音或导航VR菜单等，你需要能够看到！在我们过去的项目中，我们与残疾音乐家合作：其中一个是盲人，另一个是患有脑瘫（CP）的玛丽-路易斯。玛丽-路易斯被绑在轮椅上，她的上半身活动受限。她可以移动她的手臂，但并不总是以可控的方式。我们很想为Marie-Louise开发一个VR乐器，她是一个渴望音乐的人，但她不能轻易地使用这个新兴的技术（VR），因为它主要是为健全的人设计的。作为上一个资助项目的一部分，我们与一位美国软件开发人员合作，他在VR中制作仪器（EXA Infinite instrument）。根据我们的建议，他重新设计了一个虚拟鼓，这样玛丽-路易斯就可以用她有限的手臂运动来击鼓了。我们正在继续采用VR仪器，让Marie-Louise更容易和独立地访问它。这款VR仪器目前只能在高端、昂贵的VR设备上运行。对于这个后续项目，我们有兴趣进一步设计可用于VR的仪器，特别是对于更实惠的系统。主要目标是创建一个音乐VR乐队/团体，残疾人和健全的音乐家可以一起制作音乐，使用VR。为此，重要的是要建立VR乐器，为残疾音乐家提供信息和设计，并在更便宜的VR系统上运行。例如，独立的无线Oculus Go目前售价250英镑，而高端的HTC Vive零售价接近500英镑，需要一台高规格的电脑（约2000英镑）来运行。我们的愿景是将我们当地（北爱尔兰）的创客/设计师/编码社区和上一个项目的项目团队聚集在一起——我们现在正在扩展到一个名为Farset Labs的本地创客空间——我们将每月与这个设计师社区一起举办研讨会。在研讨会期间，设计师和编码员将了解我们已经开发的VR仪器。我们的团队和三位来自VR领域的外部专家将在4个月内为设计师提供支持和培训，为更实惠的VR平台开发VR乐器，并将残疾音乐家置于设计过程的中心。目的是设计一个可行的虚拟乐器原型，以VR应用程序的形式，在可负担得起的VR平台上运行，这是专门从残疾人的角度设计的，它将使健全和残疾的音乐家能够在VR中一起制作音乐-一个项目，我们称之为VRIMM - VR包容性音乐制作。

Virtual Reality technology is starting to be more affordable, and users have commenced investing in relatively low cost VR goggles to experience virtual worlds. Most music VR experiences currently available allow the user to watch concerts or go to music festivals in virtual reality. Many of the VR apps are passive experiences where you immerse yourself in a virtual world and see others making music, for example MelodyVR or VRTIFY, where you can watch concerts in 360-degrees, or TheWaveVR which allows you to experience music festivals in virtual reality. Few VR apps engage the user in a hands-on fashion. The Music Room is one of the exceptions as it allows the user to play a musical instrument, but it requires an expensive VR set-up.One of the main issues with these VR apps is that they are designed for able-bodied people to use them. This means that you need to be able to use the hand controllers, which requires precise control, to trigger sounds or to navigate the VR menu etc., and you need to be able to see!In our past project we worked with disabled musicians: one of them is blind and the other, Marie-Louise, has cerebral palsy (CP). Marie-Louise is bound to a wheelchair and her upper body movements are limited. She can mover her arms but not always in a controlled way. We were keen to develop a VR instrument for Marie-Louise, who is an eager musician, but who cannot access this emerging technology (VR) easily, as it is mainly designed with able-bodied people in mind.As part of the last funded project, we worked with a US software developer who makes instruments in VR (EXA Infinite instrument). On our recommendations he re-designed a virtual drum in such a way that Marie-Louise is now able to play the drum with her limited arm movements. We are continuing to adopt the VR instrument for Marie-Louise to access it more easily and independently. This VR instrument currently only runs on high-end, expensive VR equipment.For this Follow-on project we are interested in further designing instrument that can be used in VR, especially for systems that are more affordable. The main goal is to create a music VR band /group where disabled and able-bodied musicians can make music together, using VR. For this, it will be important to build VR instruments that are informed and designed with disabled musicians in mind and that run on less expensive VR systems. The stand-alone, wireless Oculus Go for instance currently costs £250, as opposed to the high-end HTC Vive which retails closer to £500 and needs a high spec computer (ca. £2k) to run it. Our vision is to bring together our local (Northern Ireland) maker /designer /coding community and together with the project team from the previous project - which we are now expanding to include a local maker space called Farset Labs - we will run monthly workshops with this designer community. During the workshops, designers and coders will find out about the VR instruments which we have already developed. Our team and three selected external specialists from within the VR field will then support and train the designers over 4 months to develop a VR music instrument for a more affordable VR platform and which puts disabled musicians at the centre of the design process.The aim is to have designed a viable prototype virtual musical instrument, in the form of a VR app, that runs on affordable VR platforms, which has been specifically designed from a disability perspective and which will enable both able-bodied and disabled musicians to make music together in VR - a project which we call VRIMM - VR Inclusive Music Making.