Sensing Music Interactions from the Outside-In: Accessible Innovation Fusing Wearable Technology and Physical Prototyping

该奖学金将批判性地检验数字乐器(DMI)开发的长期假设，并创建与身体残疾和非技术性音乐家共同设计定制乐器的新方法。其目的是开发颠覆性、思考性和包容性的方法，重塑DMI设计的基本实践，邀请更广泛的人参与新乐器的开发和未来音乐事业的愿景。乐器是丰富的文化和技术文物，用于将人类的运动转化为声音。嵌入式计算催生了大量新的DMIS，激发了音乐在表演和艺术表现方面的创新形式。DMI开发是一项高度熟练的跨学科技术，结合了音乐、工程、制造和人体工程学。因此，现代乐器设计是排他性的，乐器与其创造者的文化和技术假设根深蒂固，极大地降低了它们被广泛采用的潜力，并为非技术和身体残疾的音乐家创造了音乐创新的障碍。动作捕捉和手势交互技术已经将交互的轨迹从物理对象转移到身体上，实现了人类运动作为演奏音乐的界面。然而，音乐对象的发展和手势音乐的互动往往被分开考虑和追求。通过专注于音乐对象，乐器开发被框定为一项技术挑战，假设有标准的演奏者，而忽略了音乐家、观众和他们环境的多样性。手势音乐互动在音乐表演和可获得性方面显示出巨大的潜力，但它忽视了触觉反馈在音乐训练和技艺表演发展中的重要作用。该奖学金将采取整体方法，将手势互动和物理原型相结合。这种方法不同于在仪器中嵌入传感技术的传统做法，而是利用一种新的新兴范式，将技术重新定位到身体上，使用手腕和手上的可穿戴设备感知玩家的互动。技术和设计方法上的彻底转变，为低成本、快速生产的乐器开辟了创新的新研究方向，这些乐器可以设计为任何形状、规模或结构。至关重要的是，这为人们提供了新的方式，让他们参与到新奇的、定制的乐器的快速联合设计中，这些乐器是根据他们独特的访问要求和艺术身份量身定做的。该奖学金面向UKRI的工程、技术、人工智能、设计研究和AHRC的未来挑战受众等优先领域。PI是检验这一及时的研究机会的理想位置，建立在手势音乐系统的广泛学术和创业记录基础上。CoI和Mentors是各自领域的世界领导者，战略伙伴关系提供关键的无障碍指导、与残疾人社区的联系和未来影响的途径。主办机构Uwe在英格兰西部蓬勃发展的创意产业中扮演着重要角色，代表着本研究的理想环境。该奖学金将得到印刷研究中心(CfPR)的全力支持，并将设在The Bridge：一个由AHRC资助的230万GB的新设施内，旨在探索物理原型和互动技术的艺术应用(2023年开幕)。该奖学金支持PI、Co-I和两名博士后研究助理(RAS)的时间。Co-I将支持嵌入式可穿戴技术(WT)的发展。一个RA将探索共同设计定制音乐界面的参与式方法。另一个RA将专注于信号处理技术，以感知与音乐对象的互动。

This fellowship will critically examine longstanding assumptions of digital musical instrument (DMI) development and create new methods for co-designing customised instruments with physically impaired and non-technical musicians. The aim is to develop disruptive, speculative, and inclusive methods that reshape the fundamental practice of DMI design, inviting broader participation in the development of new musical instruments and future visions of musicianship. Musical instruments are rich cultural and technical artifacts that are used to translate human motion into sound. Embedded computation has led to an abundance of new DMIs, inspiring novel forms of music innovation in terms of performance and artistic expression. DMI development is a highly skilled interdisciplinary craft, combining music, engineering, manufacturing and ergonomics. Consequently, modern instrument design is exclusionary, and instruments are immutably ingrained with the cultural and technical assumptions of their creators, vastly reducing their potential for mass adoption and creating barriers to music innovation for non-technical and physically impaired musicians. Motion capture and gestural interaction technologies have shifted the locus of interaction away from physical objects and onto the body, realising human movement as the interface for performing music. However, the development of musical objects and gestural music interaction are often considered and pursued separately. By focusing on musical objects, instrument development is framed as a technical challenge assuming normative players and overlooking the diversity of musicians, audiences, and their environments. Gestural music interaction has shown great potential for music performance and accessibility; however, it neglects the significant role of tactile feedback in music training and the development of virtuosic performance. This fellowship will take a holistic approach, coupling gestural interaction and physical prototyping. The approach departs from the conventional practice of embedding sensing technologies within an instrument, and exploits a new, emerging paradigm that relocates the technology onto the body, sensing player interactions using wearable devices on the wrist and hand. A radical switch in both technical and design approach that opens innovative new research directions for low-cost, rapidly produced musical instruments, which can be designed to have any shape, scale or structure. Crucially, this provides new ways for people to participate in the rapid co-design of novel, customised musical instruments that are tailored to their unique access requirements and artistic identity. The fellowship addresses the UKRI priority areas of engineering, technology, AI, design research and the AHRC's Audience of the Future Challenge. The PI is ideally placed to examine this timely research opportunity, building on an extensive academic and entrepreneurial track record in gestural music systems. The Co-I and mentors are world leaders in their respective fields and strategic partnerships provide key accessibility guidance, links with Disabled communities and pathways for future impact. UWE, the host institution, plays a significant role in the West of England's (WoE) thriving creative industries and represents the ideal environment for this research. The fellowship will have the full support of the Centre for Print Research (CfPR), and will be located within The Bridge: a new £2.3M AHRC funded facility created to explore artistic applications of physical prototyping and interactive technologies (opening 2023). The fellowship supports time for the PI, Co-I and two postdoctoral research associates (RAs). The Co-I will support the development of embedded wearable technology (WT). One RA will explore participatory methods for co-designing customised musical interfaces. The other RA will focus on signal processing techniques to sense interactions with musical objects.