Monday 18 May 2015
Saturday 16 May 2015
Improving the quality of life for the visual impaired (Part 2)
Today's modern society is pushing technology to help those with disabilities. Here is a brief look at some examples of how technology is attempting to improve the lives of those with visual impairments.
In 2007, researchers at Wicab revealed a device that aimed to help visually impaired people. The wearable device attempted to give users with no sight the ability to see everyday things, by sending informative pulses to the users tongue.
The device, known as Brainport, uses a small camera attached to a pair of sunglasses to capture information. This information is converted into a black, white and grey picture that is then sent to a stick fitted with electrodes in the users mouth.
In 2007, researchers at Wicab revealed a device that aimed to help visually impaired people. The wearable device attempted to give users with no sight the ability to see everyday things, by sending informative pulses to the users tongue.
The device, known as Brainport, uses a small camera attached to a pair of sunglasses to capture information. This information is converted into a black, white and grey picture that is then sent to a stick fitted with electrodes in the users mouth.
Improving the quality of life for the visually impaired (Part 1)
Today's modern society is pushing technology to help those with disabilities. Here is a brief look at some examples of how technology is attempting to improve the lives of those with visual impairments.
First, we have OrCam, which was designed to improve visual impairment through the use of a small camera linked to a wearable computer. The device can read text, recognise faces and identify certain objects.
The device conveys text-to-speech output and audio descriptions of objects. This enables visually impaired users to become more aware and secure in their environments. One of the difficulties with such systems, is differentiating between useful and non useful information.
One of the disadvantages of this device is the requirement of finger-pointing, which is used to control what the device is monitoring. This may be suitable for users with minor visual impairments, however for users who are unable to see objects, finger-pointing is not possible.
First, we have OrCam, which was designed to improve visual impairment through the use of a small camera linked to a wearable computer. The device can read text, recognise faces and identify certain objects.
The device conveys text-to-speech output and audio descriptions of objects. This enables visually impaired users to become more aware and secure in their environments. One of the difficulties with such systems, is differentiating between useful and non useful information.
One of the disadvantages of this device is the requirement of finger-pointing, which is used to control what the device is monitoring. This may be suitable for users with minor visual impairments, however for users who are unable to see objects, finger-pointing is not possible.
Friday 8 May 2015
3D Printed Ultrasound
If you have not already seen it, check this out!
With advances in technology continuing to amaze and enhance lives, a recent development of 3D printing has enabled 30 year old Tatiana Guerra, who lost her sight at the age of 17,to "see" her son Murilo for the first time!
With advances in technology continuing to amaze and enhance lives, a recent development of 3D printing has enabled 30 year old Tatiana Guerra, who lost her sight at the age of 17,to "see" her son Murilo for the first time!
Tuesday 12 November 2013
Careers Talk
I have been given the opportunity to talk to a class of A-Level music technology students, to discuss the career possibilities that are associated with the subject. I feel honoured to be invited back to my old college, providing the opportunity to engage with students and develop an understanding of how their education can open an exciting pallet of job opportunities.
The reason I find this opportunity so exciting and important is predominantly because I wish I had someone explain the career possibilities at that stage of my development. I spent the majority of my education naively assuming that music technology could only establish a career in the "music business", and had no idea of the extent of the careers possible when possessing an understanding of music technology.
It is important to note how highly I regard the education of music technology, as it combines the creativeness of music and the technical aspects often associated with the studies of engineering or science. I have found that those studying music technology often find solace in hearing positives stories relating to the subject. While I studied music technology there were often comments stating that "music technology is not a real subject" or "not academic", which if anything fuelled my ambition to succeed.
My first concern when asked to give a careers talk was whether I was the right person for the job. It seemed slightly hypocritical to discuss possible career choices when I am not currently employed in the career I am talking about. However, after some deliberation I realised I am more than qualified to assist young minds on the possibilities of music technology related careers. I can draw on a range of experiences relating to music technology careers that range from freelance employment and an extensive education in music technology.
An exciting aspect of this careers talk will be the reunion with college teacher, who nurtured my music and music technology development. This will include observing the once dreaded 'lunch time concert', which was a weekly solo performance required to be undertaken by every music student. As nerve racking as this once was for me, it pushed me to become the guitarist I am now. So to be on the viewing side of the concert will be an intriguing opportunity.
An exciting aspect of this careers talk will be the reunion with college teacher, who nurtured my music and music technology development. This will include observing the once dreaded 'lunch time concert', which was a weekly solo performance required to be undertaken by every music student. As nerve racking as this once was for me, it pushed me to become the guitarist I am now. So to be on the viewing side of the concert will be an intriguing opportunity.
Monday 11 November 2013
Minecraft Music Rant
I have been playing Minecraft on and off for some time now (since the beta days), and there are some audio related issues I have with the game. I must first point out how much I love the music written by C148, and I bought the volume alpha album off bandcamp immediately after my first experience playing the game [1]. However, many updates have been and gone, yet the music has stayed the same. It is getting to the point now where I feel new music should either be added or replace the soundtrack that has been implemented for so long.
Another area that I feel needs addressing is the way in which the music is implemented by the Mojang development team. With an increasing awareness of interactivity in games, music can be used to convey information as well as being non-repetitive. However, the music in Minecraft is too linear for my likening. For example, you can be exploring the deep realms of the Minecraft world and have no clue to whether it is night or day above. Couldn't the music be arranged to provide this information? Possibly a change in tonality from major (day) to minor (night)?
This month has seen the release of a new Minecraft - Volume Beta audio collection, created and released by C148 [2]. As beautiful and well constructed this music is, I am eager to hear how it will be integrated into the Minecraft game.
[1] http://c418.bandcamp.com/album/minecraft-volume-alpha
[2] http://c418.bandcamp.com/album/minecraft-volume-beta
Tuesday 5 November 2013
Manchester Game Jam November
I attended the Manchester Game Jam, which took place in the heart of the Northern Quarter of one of my favourite UK cities. It was a pretty cool event, got to meet some professional game developers as well as a bunch of beginners who were eager to discuss ideas and techniques.
The event itself is an interesting concept; a group of people enthusiastic about games making games under the time constraint of a 9 to 5 day. The chilly, open planned room over looks a busy street of interesting characters which provides a refreshing occasional distraction from the computer monitor. There was a moment where a presumably homeless gentleman tried to enter through the locked door to inspect what was going on inside. However after being obstructed by the lock, began to dance and mumble words towards the table in which I was sat.
There was about 15-20 people involved in the game jam, which consisted of a variety of skilled individuals ranging from college students to professional game developers. In terms of "audio guys" there was myself and another guy, however we worked apart and on completely different projects. A chat with the other aspiring sound designer proved very insightful with regards to job application techniques, as we are both recent graduates looking for work. There was another individual working on a game that utilised audio as a key component of his game. A brief discussion of his game led to an issue being raised regarding audio spatial positioning. He mentioned how he had done a quick test of attempting to locate a sound positioned within the stereo field and found that when the sound was positioned in between Left and Centre and similarly Right and Centre the accuracy was diminished greatly. This topic was discussed briefly in my research leading towards my MSc final project, which contributed to the reading and prototyping of auditory dimensions.
The group of college students, who had been sent by their game development course teacher were an interesting addition to the event. They were zipping around the room engaging with people and overlooking what was happening on the screen. I spoke to several of these students and explained the concept of audio-only games and the approach I was taking to making such a game.
As soon as people (both professional game devs and students) looked at my screen it became clear that max/msp is truly an unknown game making programming tool. I once wrote about the pros and cons of using max/msp as a game developing tool and the response was that it is overlooked by the majority of developers. This raises questions regarding the practicality of using max/msp to make games, but I still stand firm on the belief that there are considerable benefits to building an indie audio-only game with the software. Nonetheless the enthusiasm shown towards max/msp and the concept of audio-only games at the Manchester Game Jam was greatly appreciated.
There were several themes suggested to make the games in conjunction with prior to the event. These were FIRE, COWS, MUTATION, SUBMARINES and TRADING. Quite a fun bunch of themes ey!? After seeing submarines as a theme and recently working on a submarine audio-only game, I thought I would take another stab at it, but with subtle differences in gameplay and much improved performance of certain technical aspects. However, seeing mutation on the screen now, I seriously wish I had picked that theme, as one of my favourite aspects of audio is the ability to mess with it, in both drastic and beautiful ways. A lot of my work is heavily inspired by my time at Huddersfield University under the supervision of a collection of tutors and composers who are leading contributors to the computer music scene.
As previously stated, I built a spin-off of an audio-only game previously prototyped several months ago. One of the key differences was the non-repetitive sound design, which was much richer in audio content and diversity than previous versions. This is mainly due to having no creative boundaries and making a game for the fun of making a game. However, one issue that arose during the development hindered the entire games' credibility. This was due to an unexpected amount of audio glitching and slow and disrupted audio playback. Now for a video game, audio issues would be annoying and distracting from the gameplay but the game would still be capable of playing. But for a game that relies entirely on audio quality it was disastrous. (I will be spending some time troubleshooting the issues to find out what was going wrong.)
Unfortunately I was unable to stay till the end, which resulted in not being able to see some of the work being displayed. Some vines and photos of the final games are available on the manchester game jam twitter - @MCRgamejam
The event itself is an interesting concept; a group of people enthusiastic about games making games under the time constraint of a 9 to 5 day. The chilly, open planned room over looks a busy street of interesting characters which provides a refreshing occasional distraction from the computer monitor. There was a moment where a presumably homeless gentleman tried to enter through the locked door to inspect what was going on inside. However after being obstructed by the lock, began to dance and mumble words towards the table in which I was sat.
There was about 15-20 people involved in the game jam, which consisted of a variety of skilled individuals ranging from college students to professional game developers. In terms of "audio guys" there was myself and another guy, however we worked apart and on completely different projects. A chat with the other aspiring sound designer proved very insightful with regards to job application techniques, as we are both recent graduates looking for work. There was another individual working on a game that utilised audio as a key component of his game. A brief discussion of his game led to an issue being raised regarding audio spatial positioning. He mentioned how he had done a quick test of attempting to locate a sound positioned within the stereo field and found that when the sound was positioned in between Left and Centre and similarly Right and Centre the accuracy was diminished greatly. This topic was discussed briefly in my research leading towards my MSc final project, which contributed to the reading and prototyping of auditory dimensions.
The group of college students, who had been sent by their game development course teacher were an interesting addition to the event. They were zipping around the room engaging with people and overlooking what was happening on the screen. I spoke to several of these students and explained the concept of audio-only games and the approach I was taking to making such a game.
As soon as people (both professional game devs and students) looked at my screen it became clear that max/msp is truly an unknown game making programming tool. I once wrote about the pros and cons of using max/msp as a game developing tool and the response was that it is overlooked by the majority of developers. This raises questions regarding the practicality of using max/msp to make games, but I still stand firm on the belief that there are considerable benefits to building an indie audio-only game with the software. Nonetheless the enthusiasm shown towards max/msp and the concept of audio-only games at the Manchester Game Jam was greatly appreciated.
There were several themes suggested to make the games in conjunction with prior to the event. These were FIRE, COWS, MUTATION, SUBMARINES and TRADING. Quite a fun bunch of themes ey!? After seeing submarines as a theme and recently working on a submarine audio-only game, I thought I would take another stab at it, but with subtle differences in gameplay and much improved performance of certain technical aspects. However, seeing mutation on the screen now, I seriously wish I had picked that theme, as one of my favourite aspects of audio is the ability to mess with it, in both drastic and beautiful ways. A lot of my work is heavily inspired by my time at Huddersfield University under the supervision of a collection of tutors and composers who are leading contributors to the computer music scene.
As previously stated, I built a spin-off of an audio-only game previously prototyped several months ago. One of the key differences was the non-repetitive sound design, which was much richer in audio content and diversity than previous versions. This is mainly due to having no creative boundaries and making a game for the fun of making a game. However, one issue that arose during the development hindered the entire games' credibility. This was due to an unexpected amount of audio glitching and slow and disrupted audio playback. Now for a video game, audio issues would be annoying and distracting from the gameplay but the game would still be capable of playing. But for a game that relies entirely on audio quality it was disastrous. (I will be spending some time troubleshooting the issues to find out what was going wrong.)
Unfortunately I was unable to stay till the end, which resulted in not being able to see some of the work being displayed. Some vines and photos of the final games are available on the manchester game jam twitter - @MCRgamejam
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