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Subject: a musical rendition of social interaction, MIT app Fw: [LR] mindand tunes


interesting fo sho!

Begin forwarded message:

Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 08:58:24 -0800
From: "L. Reafsnyder" <budoka42@mindspring.com>
To: Cognizor <Cognizor@Cognizor.com>
Subject: [LR] mind and tunes


Calm mind creates complex tunes

By Jo Twist 
BBC News Online technology reporter 


 [image]
Listening to music helps people relax

Scientists already know that music can affect a person's 
physiological state, inducing excitement or relaxation. 

But researchers have turned the idea on its head with a system that 
composes music based on how relaxed a person is. 

The application, under development at MIT's Media Lab Europe, uses 
biometrics to control what the listener hears. 

As the listener relaxes more, different instruments start to play. 
The system could be employed as a useful stress-management 
application in the future. 

State of Nirvana 

"The project is based around the idea of drifting deeper into music 
according to a positive biometric state, said Phil McDarby, research 
associate with the Mind Games groups at the Dublin labs. 

"The piece consists of seven distinct layers, including bass, piano, 
strings and flutes," he told BBC News Online. 

"As the user relaxes the layers are peeled back and they drift deeper
into the music." 

 [image]
Peace Composed could be used for stress management

Slipping on two biometrics onto the fingertips is the easy part. They
detect specific changes in conductivity that happen - a Galvanic Skin
Response (GSR) - dependent upon a person's state. 

The difficult part is concentrating on relaxing in order to "unlock" 
the seven different layers of the music, and some who have tried the 
system have only heard a bass line, indicating their stress 
management is ineffective. 

"I guess the central idea is to extend music through biometrics, to 
try and give it a different dimension, a dimension contingent on how 
the user is 'feeling'," said Mr McDarby. 

"I've always composed and I just thought wouldn't it be cool if you 
had a piece of music, a really full piece of music, that you only 
heard a little of if you weren't in the correct biometric state. 

"By chilling out and relaxing, you drift in and out of the music." 

Called Peace Composed, the project grew from previous work the Mind 
Games research group had developed which used bio-feedback technology
in a game. 

Relax to Win was developed to help children with problems like 
anxiety, phobia, and post-traumatic stress, and has now been 
installed at Mater Misericordiae Hospital. 

Orchestral minds 

Only a handful of people have tried Peace Composed, however, and the 
project is only just over a month old. Its inaugural public outing 
was at the Media Labs' open day in Dublin at the end of last month. 

But it already works surprisingly well. 

The listener is mostly unaware of what affect he or she is having, 
until the realisation dawns that a cacophony of instruments is 
weaving their way from finger and electrode to ear and head. 

Mr McDarby hopes to extend the system to allow a more collaborative 
and fun approach to stress management. 

But it could also be used as an innovative form of music production. 

"Imagine a number of people each had wireless GSR sensors and each 
controlled a 'part' of the song. 

"Or an entire orchestra, who instead of their instruments, had a GSR 
sensor on which would reveal their pre-recorded segment according to 
their physiological state," he said. 

The researchers have now moved on to the next stage of the project 
which is to develop the interface to the system.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3494276.stm

http://www.medialabeurope.org/

http://www.medialabeurope.org/research/mindgames/index.html

http://mindgames.mle.ie/

--
 The most valuable teaching is the one heard only by the few.-LFR
 .
 L. Reafsnyder, budoka42@mindspring.com on 03/12/2004
 Imi na'au ao
 Yamatatsu-ryu
 Personal E-mail for friends and colleagues.
  





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