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

该奖学金将严格审查数字乐器（DMI）发展的长期假设，并为与身体残疾和非技术音乐家共同设计定制乐器创造新的方法。其目的是发展颠覆性、思动性和包容性的方法，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的音乐愿景。乐器是丰富的文化和技术文物，用来将人类的动作转化为声音。嵌入式计算导致了大量新的dmi，在表演和艺术表达方面激发了音乐创新的新形式。DMI的开发是一个高度熟练的跨学科工艺，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，乐器与它们的创造者的文化和技术假设不可改变地根深蒂固，大大降低了它们被大规模采用的潜力，并为非技术和身体有缺陷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表演音乐的界面。然而，音乐对象的发展和手势音乐的互动往往是分开考虑和追求的。通过关注音乐对象，乐器开发被认为是一项技术挑战，假设玩家是规范的，而忽视了音乐家、观众及其环境的多样性。手势音乐互动在音乐表演和易用性方面显示出巨大的潜力；然而，它忽视了触觉反馈在音乐训练和艺术表演发展中的重要作用。这项研究将采取整体的方法，结合手势交互和物理原型。该方法不同于将传感技术嵌入仪器的传统做法，而是利用了一种新的新兴范例，将技术重新定位到身体上，使用手腕和手上的可穿戴设备来感知玩家的互动。技术和设计方法的彻底转变，为低成本，快速生产的乐器开辟了创新的新研究方向，这些乐器可以设计成任何形状，规模或结构。至关重要的是，这为人们提供了新的方式，让他们能够参与到新奇的、定制的乐器的快速共同设计中来，这些乐器是根据他们独特的访问要求和艺术身份量身定制的。该奖学金涉及UKRI的工程、技术、人工智能、设计研究和AHRC的未来挑战受众的优先领域。PI是一个理想的位置来检查这个及时的研究机会，建立在广泛的学术和创业记录在手势音乐系统。共同负责人和导师是各自领域的世界领袖，战略伙伴关系提供了关键的无障碍指导，与残疾人社区建立了联系，并为未来的影响提供了途径。主办机构UWE在英格兰西部（WoE）蓬勃发展的创意产业中发挥着重要作用，代表了这项研究的理想环境。该奖学金将得到印刷研究中心（CfPR）的全力支持，并将位于The Bridge内：这是一个由AHRC资助的230万英镑的新设施，旨在探索物理原型和互动技术的艺术应用（2023年开放）。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交互。

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.