VRIMM: VR Inclusive Music Making, Northern Ireland

虚拟现实技术开始变得更加实惠，用户已经开始投资相对低成本的VR眼镜来体验虚拟世界。目前可用的大多数音乐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VR应用程序都是被动体验，让你沉浸在虚拟世界中，看到其他人制作音乐，例如MelodyVR或VRTIFY，你可以在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应用程序以动手的方式吸引用户。音乐室是一个例外，因为它允许用户演奏乐器，但它需要昂贵的VR设置。这些VR应用程序的主要问题之一是，它们是为身体健全的人使用它们而设计的。这意味着您需要能够使用需要精确控制的手动控制器来触发声音或导航VR菜单等，你得能看见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，另一个是患有脑瘫的玛丽-路易丝。玛丽-路易丝被绑在轮椅上，她的上半身活动受到限制。她可以移动她的手臂，但并不总是以一种受控制的方式。Marie-Louise是一位音乐家，但她不能轻易接触到虚拟现实技术，因为虚拟现实技术主要是为身体健全的人设计的。作为上一个资助项目的一部分，我们与一位在虚拟现实中制作乐器的美国软件开发商（EXA Infinite instrument）合作。根据我们的建议，他重新设计了一个虚拟鼓，这样玛丽-路易丝现在就可以用她有限的手臂运动来打鼓。我们将继续采用VR仪器，让Marie-Louise更容易和独立地访问它。该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使用VR一起创作音乐。为此，重要的是要建立VR乐器，这些乐器是为残疾音乐家设计的，并且可以在更便宜的VR系统上运行。例如，独立的无线Oculus Go目前售价为250英镑，而高端HTC Vive的零售价接近500英镑，需要一台高规格的电脑（约250美元）。我们的愿景是将我们当地（北方爱尔兰）的制造商/设计师/编码社区聚集在一起，并与上一个项目的项目团队一起-我们现在正在扩大，包括一个名为Farset Labs的当地制造商空间-我们将与这个设计师社区一起举办每月一次的研讨会。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个月内支持和培训设计师，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。目的是设计一种可行的虚拟乐器原型，以VR应用程序的形式，在实惠的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在VR中一起制作音乐-我们称之为VRIMM - VR包容性音乐制作项目。

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.