A Method for Learning Netytar: An Accessible Digital Musical Instrument

Abstract

Accessible Digital Musical Instruments (ADMI) are increasingly raising interest within the scientific community, especially in the contexts of Sound and Music Computing and Human-Computer Interaction. In the past, Netytar has been proposed among these. Netytar is a software ADMI operated through the eyes using an eye tracker and an additional switch or sensor (e.g., a breath sensor). The instrument is dedicated to quadriplegic users: it belongs to the niche of gaze operated musical instruments, and has been proven effective and functional through testing. Although there are several other gaze operated ADMIs available in market and literature, a formal method for studying music with them has not yet been proposed. The present work introduces a simple study method based on a set of exercises. This can be useful for approaching musical performance with Netytar, but it's also potentially generalizable for learning other similar instruments. The exercises are illustrated, discussed and explained in view of an improvement. A simple musical notation is introduced. At the end of a learning cycle, a user is expected to be able to perform simple melodies, and have a basis with which to learn other new ones. In the future, the method will be tested with the target users.

Accessible Music for Everyone: Discovering Resources

“…Furthermore, the field of accessible digital musical instruments (ADMI), dedicated to instruments designed for people with disabilities, is growing rapidly, with the recognition that adaptations of existing digital musical instruments can promote inclusive music making [14][15][16]. ADMI offer opportunities to engage with a wider range of sounds than acoustic instruments can provide.…”

“…ADMI offer opportunities to engage with a wider range of sounds than acoustic instruments can provide. Some ADMI use eye-tracking through head movements [14][15][16], releasing the user from interfaces dependence such as keyboard and mouse to interact with sounds. Furthermore, some authors have implemented a simple study method, based on a set of exercises, to aid the use of ADMI [16], thus providing greater opportunities for exploration, improvisation, empowerment and fluidity in music production for users with or without SN [14][15][16][17][18][19]22].…”

“Below 58 BPM,” involving real-time monitoring and self-medication practices in music performance through IoT technology

“…The design space defined by the overlapping of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and media arts (including music) has recently been characterized by a growing interest in accessibility. For example, the New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) community developed many research projects focused on interfaces targeted for disabled performers (Davanzo and Avanzini, 2020;Skuse and Knotts, 2020, e.g.,). These projects aim to provide solutions that target the compensation of specific persons' characteristics and create opportunities for greater participation and inclusion in music-making.…”

Collaborative music-making: special educational needs school assistants as facilitators in performances with accessible digital musical instruments

“…With an increased interest in exploring how different accessible music technologies can be used to promote diversity and inclusion in music-making and musicking (Small, 1998) comes a need to understand, design, and possibly also evaluate such systems. Although attempts have been made to introduce design principles and classification methods based on different use cases (Frid, 2019b;Davanzo and Avanzini, 2020;Harrison, 2020) and to investigate the potential of existing ecological frameworks in design and evaluation of ADMIs (e.g. the Human Activity Assistive Technology and the Matching Person and Technology frameworks deployed by Lucas et al 2021), there is still no commonly accepted or established evaluation methodology for ADMIs.…”