Now, brain hat that allows people to compose music using eyes

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ANI Washington
Last Updated : Dec 25 2014 | 5:55 PM IST

A team of researchers have developed a Brain Computer Music Interface (BCMI) that uses electrodes plugged into the back of the head.

The new system, designed at UK's Plymouth University fuses tech and music allowing people to compose melodies using their eyes.

Eduardo Miranda, head of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research at Plymouth University, said that their brain was producing electricity all the time.

Miranda continued that these were very faint electrical signals but they could amplify and analyze them.

Speaking of his inspiration for the project, Miranda said he wanted to create something to enable people with severe disabilities to make music and he was struck by an encounter he had once with a man who had had a stroke and was paralyzed completely from the neck down.

Miranda added that a few years ago he tested a prototype with a paralyzed patient in a hospital in London he was able to play music by looking as these icons. The nurses and carers there told him that one of the things that these patients really miss is interaction with other people, not with machines.

Julie Tugwell, from the Queen Elizabeth's Foundation for Disabled People, who was involved with a similar project, thinks the technology could have wider applications, said that it was amazing to explore how technology can help to unleash the creativity within people that they may find difficulty expressing through traditional methods.

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First Published: Dec 25 2014 | 5:43 PM IST

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