AXMEDIS 2007 Conference Proceedings

The AXMEDIS International Conference series has been established since 2005 and is focused on the research, developments and applications in the cross-media domain, exploring innovative technologies to meet the challenges of the sector. AXMEDIS2007 deals with all subjects and topics related to cross-media and digital-media content production, processing, management, standards, representation, sharing, interoperability, protection and rights management. It addresses the latest developments and future trends of the technologies and their applications, their impact and exploitation within academic, business and industrial communities

Rehabilitation Engineering

Population ageing has major consequences and implications in all areas of our daily life as well as other important aspects, such as economic growth, savings, investment and consumption, labour markets, pensions, property and care from one generation to another. Additionally, health and related care, family composition and life-style, housing and migration are also affected. Given the rapid increase in the aging of the population and the further increase that is expected in the coming years, an important problem that has to be faced is the corresponding increase in chronic illness, disabilities, and loss of functional independence endemic to the elderly (WHO 2008). For this reason, novel methods of rehabilitation and care management are urgently needed. This book covers many rehabilitation support systems and robots developed for upper limbs, lower limbs as well as visually impaired condition. Other than upper limbs, the lower limb research works are also discussed like motorized foot rest for electric powered wheelchair and standing assistance device

Multi-Sensory Interaction for Blind and Visually Impaired People

This book conveyed the visual elements of artwork to the visually impaired through various sensory elements to open a new perspective for appreciating visual artwork. In addition, the technique of expressing a color code by integrating patterns, temperatures, scents, music, and vibrations was explored, and future research topics were presented. A holistic experience using multi-sensory interaction acquired by people with visual impairment was provided to convey the meaning and contents of the work through rich multi-sensory appreciation. A method that allows people with visual impairments to engage in artwork using a variety of senses, including touch, temperature, tactile pattern, and sound, helps them to appreciate artwork at a deeper level than can be achieved with hearing or touch alone. The development of such art appreciation aids for the visually impaired will ultimately improve their cultural enjoyment and strengthen their access to culture and the arts. The development of this new concept aids ultimately expands opportunities for the non-visually impaired as well as the visually impaired to enjoy works of art and breaks down the boundaries between the disabled and the non-disabled in the field of culture and arts through continuous efforts to enhance accessibility. In addition, the developed multi-sensory expression and delivery tool can be used as an educational tool to increase product and artwork accessibility and usability through multi-modal interaction. Training the multi-sensory experiences introduced in this book may lead to more vivid visual imageries or seeing with the mind’s eye

Performance Art: An Exploration of Living Sculpture, Performing Sculpture, and Performativity and the Development of an Experimental Approach to Music Composition

This research is a practice-led investigation consisting of a portfolio of compositions and an accompanying critical and reflective commentary. My compositional approach seeks to combine features of traditional compositional practice with an embodied approach more typical of contemporary and historical performance art. It is through my composition and subsequent critical reflection that I explore key concepts in my work: how approaches typical of post-dramatic theatre can be enacted in musical composition; the tension between a performative interpretation of artistic practice framed as ‘showing/doing’ (as described by Richard Schechner1) and the revealed and veiled performance practice associated with instrumental and vocal performance; and my approach to ‘breaking the fourth wall’ in the context of musical performance through the blurring of concert, theatrical, and installation environments and through the juxtaposition of elusive artistic practice and the more prosaic features that support this work (i.e. drawing attention to the lighting and sound engineers as a part of the performance alongside the more rarefied artistic practice). The main body of the commentary is divided into two sections. The first section provides a context for the analysis by expanding on the themes in relation to the work of other composers and artists. The second section describes the composition process, the rehearsals which took place, and my experience of producing the pieces. This part discusses seven contrasting works that make up the main portfolio. There are various performances, film arts, film of the process of making my instruments (living sculptures) and trailers presented as additional works (appendices). The pieces are presented chronologically on the accompanying three DVDs, which should help to illustrate the development of the work. The first two DVDs include the submitted seven pieces (i.e. The Main Portfolio) and the third DVD covers the appendices of promotional and extra materials

Lifting the Curtain on Opera Translation and Accessibility: Translating Opera for Audiences with Varying Sensory Ability

In the multicultural world of today, as boundaries continue to merge and evolve, issues of accessibility and translation are brought to the forefront of political and social debate. Whilst considerable progress has already been achieved in this domain, the international social and legal recognition of the human right of accessibility to the media and arts demands further advancement in the development of facilities to provide universal access to various art forms including theatre, cinema, and opera. With rapidly developing technology, digitisation and an increasingly socially-aware society, the notion of media accessibility is evolving in response to shifting audience expectations. Performing arts and media, such as opera, are called upon to advance further to embrace all audiences and related audiovisual translation methods are progressing. These include audio description and touch tours for the blind and partially-sighted, as well as sign language interpreting and surtitles for the deaf and the hard-of-hearing. These relatively new translation modalities which are consumer-oriented by nature require an original research design for investigation of the translation processes involved. This research design follows two fundamental principles: (1) audience reception studies should be an integral part of the investigation into the translation process; and (2) the translation process is regarded as a network. This present work explores the unique translation processes of audio description, touch tours, surtitles and sign language interpreting within the context of live opera, focusing on the UK and from the perspective of actor-network theory. A twofold methodology is employed which brings together a study of the translator’s role and an audience reception survey. The translator’s task is examined through observational methods and dialogue with professional practitioners of the various aforementioned translation modalities. The audience’s perspective is investigated through analysis of data collected in a pioneering audience reception project conducted in May 2011, in collaboration with Opera North at performances of Bizet’s Carmen. The focus is on findings assessing the mutual impact of the translator’s choices and audience reception on the distinctive process of translating opera for the blind and partially-sighted as well as the deaf and the hard-of-hearing

Portfolio of original compositions

In the last few decades the area of touch research has become vibrant, exciting and urgent, yet research into touch in music – in the way outlined here as cutaneous contact – is close to non-existent. Sounds emanate from touch but still, touch has not been included in the aesthetics of music. Examining touch in musical literature I argue that touch is fundamental to music while music’s philosophical and aesthetic definition has excluded it. My research reveals that what were previously argued to be the main reasons to marginalize touch in music, are in fact facets of a style of music which has, so far, been marginalized because touch’s inclusion problematizes the tangibility of the musical experience. By contrasting my portfolio of original works with my literary review I demonstrate my interrogation of these marginalized facets and show how music changes by moving away from sounding description to tactile demonstration and exploration of sounding shapes, textures and resonating volumes. By including touch in music instruments become tailor-made for individual bodies engaging with and disrupting the technical skill of the musician, the score stops being a singularly imaginable picture and becomes a fragmented assemblage of tangible forms as a musical instance, which I have called the composed musical instrument. Thus, changing musical organization from the written to the assembled composition changes from writing in time to feeling the mapping of topologies and the manipulation of materials through cutaneous contact. Performance of a composition stops being stage oriented and begins at the first sound of making the composed musical instrument. Most strangely, silence, a key component of music so far, stops being necessary and listening can be done with the skin. Retaining its communicative value as a sound the inclusion of touch creates a semantic sign system that can only be experienced through touch

16th Sound and Music Computing Conference SMC 2019 (28–31 May 2019, Malaga, Spain)

The 16th Sound and Music Computing Conference (SMC 2019) took place in Malaga, Spain, 28-31 May 2019 and it was organized by the Application of Information and Communication Technologies Research group (ATIC) of the University of Malaga (UMA). The SMC 2019 associated Summer School took place 25-28 May 2019. The First International Day of Women in Inclusive Engineering, Sound and Music Computing Research (WiSMC 2019) took place on 28 May 2019. The SMC 2019 TOPICS OF INTEREST included a wide selection of topics related to acoustics, psychoacoustics, music, technology for music, audio analysis, musicology, sonification, music games, machine learning, serious games, immersive audio, sound synthesis, etc

Discussion of the selection and use of teaching aids and standard materials in the lower school at Perkins School for the Blind

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit