Augustus Richter
IUUR STEM Summer Research Program
Major: Audio Engineering & Sound Production
Mentor: Patrick Shih
There are many existing software applications that can greatly benefit the field of music therapy; however, their features are often buried under layers of complexity and hidden affordances. Our research focuses on developing an application for music therapists that is intuitive, efficient, and powerful. The name of the program is Musica, and it allows clients to listen to their favorite music on YouTube while watching a beating display of a heart. The application employs reflective photoplethysmography to compute heart rate, and the heart rate is constantly differentiated using a simple algorithm in order to ascertain the user’s psychological state. Cardiac acceleration is a known indicator of activity in the autonomic nervous system and can be used as a trigger for changes in the music. If the user’s heart rate begins accelerating in a positive direction above a baseline value, then Musica exploits colored noise as a form of biofeedback to inform the client that they need to relax. The application is currently functional and ready for beta testing before making the software open source and readily available to all.
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