Improving Accessibility for Visually Impaired Musicians

The integration of visually impaired musicians in conventional orchestral settings poses multiple challenges, one of which is the requirement that such musicians be able to follow the conductor’s rhythmic and expressive motions. In order to overcome this obstacle, this project aims to provide the musician with sensory feedback that translates the conductor's motions from visual cues to another kind.

Previous projects and devices of this kind have been developed, so this project's main focus is to learn more about how the technology works, explore areas for customization, and eventually allow for more experimentation and improvements to the existing technology.

I designed, developed, and tested a prototype of this device. It consists of two main parts, one attached to the conductor's wrist and the other to the clothes or skin of the musician. A wireless signal containing information about the motion and acceleration of the conductor's wrist is sent to the musician's Arduino, which translates the motion into an on/off signal for a buzzer.

Development of Devices

Preliminary Conductor Attachment The conductor's device consists of an accelerometer (tracking wrist motion), an Arduino Uno (for data processing), and a wireless RF transceiver (for sending data to musician). In this preliminary setup, there's also a speaker attached so I can hear what beats of the baton are being picked up, and which aren't.	Extended Accelerometer Wire This braided wire would run up the conductor's sleeve and down to the device on his/her hip.	Wireless Transceiver	Both conductor's and musician's devices
Updated devices Wrist strap with buzzer for musician on the left, wrist strap with accelerometer for conductor on the right.	Final Prototype Both devices contained in boxes.

Improving Accessibility for Visually Impaired Musicians

Development of Devices

Preliminary Conductor Attachment

Extended Accelerometer Wire

This braided wire would run up the conductor's sleeve and down to the device on his/her hip.

Wireless Transceiver

Both conductor's and musician's devices

Updated devices

Wrist strap with buzzer for musician on the left, wrist strap with accelerometer for conductor on the right.

Final Prototype

Both devices contained in boxes.