I chose this paper as i find very interesting the more experimental applications of technology like Max, and how the principles we are learning in this class can be applicable in a wide range of fields.
The paper is an exploration in to how EMG sonification can be used for rehabilitation. The main idea is that spinal cord rehabilitation is based on a lot of repetetive and boring movements for the user, and it can be hard to stay motivated to keep executing the same movements. The implementation of complex music generation based on muscle signals has two quite interesting possibilities, one is to give feedback to user for motivation, and the other is to give direct audio feedback if the correct muscles are being activated or not. This is particularly interesting if this is later developed to be something patients can use at home after they leave the hospital. The authors discuss this and the importance of continuing to practice after leaving the hospital. The audio feedback can be particularly helpful for younger children who are harder to motivate to continue with the same repetitive movement over and over. A small disclaimer is that this paper only describes the implementation and possible use of a musical feedback for rehabilitation, they do not include research on how effective the approach is, as it is a project still in development.
Another part of this paper i found very interesting is the accessibility of the technology that the authors implement to conduct the research project. Even with my fairly limited knowledge about Cycling 74 Max and computer signal processing I can understand the basics of the implementation they have done. They base the signal processing on a software tool called Body Brian Digital Musical Instrumental that is specifically developed for researcher that do not have a background from neuroscience or signal analysis.
Through this software and their own objects in Max they have created an interaction model, which i think is very interesting. It is a very cool example of how the principles we have learned so far in this class can be implemented in quite complex ways, and use the music and audio generation for quite complex prototypes. And also applications in fields quite far outside what we normally consider in our work. The development of a complex interaction interface only based on sound and muscle signals feels quite futuristic, but it is also understandable how they implemented. The only thing that I miss in the paper is a more information about how the users interacted with and experienced the technology.
