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Ask Slashdot: How Can a Blind Singer 'See' the Choirmaster's Baton?
New submitter krid4 writes "Question from a blind friend: 'My ears replace my eyes. However, when it comes to the very moment of starting, or the change of tempi, my start will always come too late. Neither tuning in with the voices around me, nor listening to the moment of their breathing-in helps to solve this problem. Fancy that it might be possible to produce tactile pressure or even lines at the top of my right
hand, head or body. Even pulses would do, because what finally counts is the moment of the 'beat' produced by the choirmasters baton.' What simple, possibly DIY solutions are possible? It would help many blind chorus singers."
Motion tracking video of the baton (cheap webcam view from the side, colored foam ball on the baton end, track up/down motion with some very simple image processing); convert to a usable signal (e.g. audible clicks through an earpiece when the baton reaches maximum/minimum positions and turns around).
Thanks for te help, captain obvious.
Can't the choir director accommodate your disability by counting down the beginning of the song? Forcing you both to adapt some cumbersome technology seems silly.
Use a Wiimote to detect the baton's position. Then connect the position data to an electrical discharge device that the blind person can feel and thereby sense the position of the baton. I'm thinking a rectal cattle prod or something like that.
Of course you'd turn the power down to a low stun setting. Wouldn't you?
Why a tech solution? let another singer hold your hand and give you cues on when to start and stop.
But there just might be a way to make them 'See' the baton. It wouldn't be true sight, but through some technology, they might be able to respond as if they could 'see' it.
If you're singing in a choir, then you're standing next to someone else, who is likely sighted. Just have them give you the cue. It could be that they hold your upper arm, and slide it down to the elbow it as the choirmaster's baton drops. If the choirmaster gives a four-count before starting, then the helper's signal may be four squeezes on your arm, or four taps on your shoe. I don't imagine that it would take much training for a new person to help you with this, and it's much cheaper than some high-tech solution which may not work.
Not necessary. There have been some interesting experiments in retaking human senses. There have been tests retask the tongues’ nerve cell to receive sonar.
Or this - http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/f358/?srp=2
To throw something wild out with about 60 seconds of thought – could one use a Kinect to track and translate the baton motion? I would assume it would mean putting some obvious at the end of the baton – red foam ball? And then you would need to translate that into something – more specialized hardware.
1. I'd be tempted to attach an accelerometer to the conductor's baton or hand. This could probably be made small and unobtrusive enough to not be a bother. I'm not sure how to present the information. Detecting the beats may not be so tough, but I suspect you could do better. If you look at even electronic metronomes or metronome software for instance, some will still have a display that mimics the old mechanical arm. This provides useful information, as it shows the progress to the next beat, which allows you to anticipate (based on more than the time of the previous beat) rather than just react. If you convert either the acceleration or a derived speed or derived location to a tone in an earpiece, you may be able to learn to use it.
2. Have either the conductor or an assistant murmur the beat into a microphone which you pick up.
Oblig That's What She Said.
Let's have more FSs written in quasi-haiku cadences, too.
i have discovered
how to break into a bank
steal the chained up pens.
I write good haikus
Better than I've seen posted
Why don't you post this?
hunter thompson says
"did you eat all this acid"
crazy samoan
Have the person next to you hold your hand and squeeze.
I know, it's a boring nontechnical solution, but I'm pretty sure it will work out of the box (or with just a little practice). As long as you don't stand in the front row, it shouldn't even be apparent to the audience.
In Marvel Comics, lawyer Matt Murdock found a way... ... and became Daredevil!
use a vibrating dildo with with wireless remote; with wide adoption could even put the baton industry out of business
I know -- it sounds like a joke in poor taste. But hear me out: By using a kinect to track the wand, you could have it control a shock collar by having it emit short pulses to create morse code. You can wear the collar as a bracelet and have it turned down super low.
A musician gets so much more information from a conductor than just the tempo of the music. Ideally, there would be a way to get a full 3d "view" of the choirmaster's baton, and preferably hands, too. I'm thinking on the singer's end, the solution should be tactile, that's the only way I think to provide enough information while not being distracting.
Some folks have hacked the Kinect stuff before. You're right that the device might not track the slender baton, but a conductor doesn't have to use one. He/she can use their own hands. That should be big enough to catch the down beat or whatever he/she uses to indicate the start of the song and whatever they use to indicate the end.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
Could you do something with vibration in the floor/chair? Someone tapping the beat on the rungs of the chair or floor.
simple...he is the choir master!
She couldn't hear people enter the shop...
Vibrating bracelet bluetooth bracelet and replace the baton with a wiimote :)
1. Add a small analog 16G accelerometer to the tip of the baton, and use the analog signal to modulate a sound - I'd suggest starting with a white noise and use a narrow band filter that changes in frequency based on the motion. - Up strokes would track to higher, down strokes to lower. Using white noise as the carrier rather than a tone would prevent you from being distracted by the frequency of the tone while singing.
2. Just stick a tiny cell-phone type mic at the top of the wand, and run the resulting wind noise from the motion to an earpiece.
There are really two issues at hand: 1. Tracking the baton. -and- 2. Getting the information to the singer. The first issue is easy enough to do with a Kinect or similar device as many people have done. The second is somewhat more complex in that it requires the recipient to get the position of the baton in real-time in order to detect tempo and direction. My first thought is a pair of devices (left and right) that the intended recipient has in his/her possession. The devices can output a vibration at a baseline frequency at a baseline amplitude. The devices could be set up to respond to the output of the Kinect in such a way that the left-right position of the baton is tracked by changing the amplitude of the devices. E.g. - as the baton moves to the left of center relative to the at rest position, the amplitude of the left device becomes greater than that of the device on the right. In the same way, frequency can be adjusted up as the the baton moves higher than the at rest position. Wired devices that are held in the hand would be easiest.
The sound effects for the light sabers in the original Star Wars were modified during battle scenes by waving, basically, a baton-like microphone around to match the waving around on-screen. Wikipedia. The result they wanted was to change the pitch, but what you also got was an audible sense of the motion of the baton.
Ask someone who's encountered the problem and seen it solved... Like a choir director or one of the many organizations of choir and choral directors. Here's one. http://www.chorusamerica.org/ Part of the purpose of such organizations is to share information about what works for common and uncommon situations.
All 12 of them.
Give the choirmaster a theremin stick and headphones to the singers.
Although the choir starts singing on the large downward movement of the baton, that is not the cue the choir is using - if the started singing after seeing the downward movement, they would always be late. They are actually taking their cue from the very subtle upward movement just before the downward sweep. Even detecting this would be difficult. The size of this movement, and the delay between this movement and the drop, whether a movement is the of the 'get ready' upward sweep... all very difficult and confusing things. And the nature of the movements will change depending on conductor, the nature of the music, or even the conductors mood. The human brain sorts all of these things out just fine. The best idea is one I read from another poster here - have the neighbour of blind singer give them their cue.
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
OK, so we've got posts here about wiring up a webcam to a computer to do motion tracking and such...how about build a simple pedal with a momentary push button and have the conductor tap his feet on that, then connect that to, say, a 555 timer to generate an audible tone while the button is depressed which can be routed to some sort of earpiece or headphone -- or even a piezo element which the singer should be able to feel vibrate or click. Whole solution shouldn't cost more than $20, and that's at Radioshack prices. And it could be put together in an afternoon. Only downside is you'd need to have a wire running between the conductor and the singer, and it may be slightly more complicated for the conductor. Could have one of the other musicians tap his foot instead and see if that'd work, that would shorten the run of wire as well.
Use similar electronics but transmit the sound via a Bluetooth ear piece. 2D and 3D G-force sensors make the idea simple. First one to the patent office wins the prize!
There was an unknown error in the submission.
Have the person next to you tap the beat on your foot or very close to you with theirs and feel that.
I play tenor sax (badly ...) and practice to backing tracks provided by my ever-patient teacher. He provides some ticks (baton hitting the stand...) before the music and after that, if I drift from the backing track I know I'm out. Or it is :) It's difficult if you're a soloist, and doing an unaccompanied bit: I had "The Long and Winding road" once, which has a bit where the soloist (me) is all by himself for about ten seconds ,,, cojones of steel...
And good luck to your blind friend. It's difficult enough sighted. Lord knows how your friend will tell a minim from a crotchet. Experience, I guess.
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
Seldom does the exact motion of the baton matter. Different conductors have different styles. But you could modify a Wii controller to follow the motion of the baton and turn it into pressure or some other kind of signal.
However, when it comes to the very moment of starting, or the change of tempi, my start will always come too late.
Ah .. the trauma of remembering band practice:
Every conductor has a different style. The signal to start your part of a song that has already begun may be a small flick or pointing of the baton in your general direction, barely interrupting the overall tempo of the conducting, or if you have a dramatic conductor it can be a two-handed "picador going over the horns" gesture ... or no gesture at all.
Because the baton may be signalling to someone near the OP - in front or behind - but not the OP, the problem is discrimination as much as detection.
Also, it's not always a down beat. Changes of volume, extended notes and the final cut off of a long final note may be sweeping or tiny gestures sideways or straight towards the choir or orchestra.
Very few conductors will make big changes in tempo from what was practiced. No good will come of it.
In short, it might be more practical to start on the second note and drop out on the next to last note, paying attention to the parts of the production that immediately precede your bits so you are ready for it.
I don't think actually transmitting a sound that is audible would be a great idea. That might interfere with the ability to match pitch.
Bluetooth earrings that transmit a non-audible vibration would be pretty cool though.
Just have the choirmaster do a brief "tap, tap, tap" with the baton to get the choir's attention, then accompany his initial measure with a soft count of "one, two, three, four". Every band symphonic or marching band I ever played with did this already, and I just assumed the same was true for choir. The only technology necessary is to remind the choirmaster that not everyone can see the baton.
Yes. Instead of a baton, use a cattle prod.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Gah. No. That'd throw your pitch off terribly.
There's only one answer I can come up with. Have someone stand next to the blind friend and give him/her tactile cues. Hand squeezes would work, but be very basic. If the sighted friend has any skill, holding hands (down by their side) and making a very small pattern would be even better.
Either way, the sighted person would need to pay extraordinarily close attention to tempo changes and cuing. I'd be a hard job, but it would be doable.
As for the aesthetics of the performance? Nobody cares when you're helping a friend like this. If you're really concerned about how it looks, then make it obvious somehow that they're blind. (have them wear the great big stereotypical black glasses, etc)
I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.
any smartphone could accomplish this task, they all have accelerometers and gyroscopes and whathaveyou. Simply have the phones accelerometer send a signal to a another smartphone on vibrate, this could easily be accomplished through a simple app, then the choirmaster simply holds the phone in the same hand as his baton (or strapped onto the back of his hand. Or simply the phone becomes the new baton. Latency could be reduced by having an adhoc wireless network connecting them ( as they wont be too far away).
Strap a light or IR transmitter to the tip of the baton that delivers a signal to a device taped to your temple. Then when it receives the signal it can shock you or give an auditory response. Shocking would be funnier though.
It's still over complicating the issue (my response below), but it would be interesting to note that the baton's position is defined precisely by the position of the conductor's hand. If Kinect could be convinced to totally ignore the baton, and if hand angle and roll can be calculated, then it's point could be easily extrapolated based upon hand position.
I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.
The Leap Motion gesture interface coupled with Text-To-Speech feedback may be a good solution.
A friend's hand, tapping in rhyhm; or the baton itself tapping the podium. Or the friend's foot tapping the rhythm, which you hear.
For solos, some creativity on the conductor's part can eliminate the problem.
For a tech solution, I wonder if there is something from wii?
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
is to use a remote mike either on the conductor or on an ensemble member, to simply speak the precount or downbeat. or a footswitch, to be stepped on in time to to music, although this can be tricky with different count ins. The footswitch could be rigged to a relay, that would "thump" the underside of the piano bench or a chair. either could be used with a small amp and small monitor speaker, or maybe an open ear ITE monitor
Republican leadership = Idiocracy
I sang in a semi-pro choir for a while and at one point our director had us all move to the edges of the largish church we were rehearsing, had us face the church walls (i.e. away from each other).... and start singing in unison. Believe it or not, if you know the music and the group you're singing with, it's very doable.
Barring that, having someone who knows what they're doing holding the blind person's hand and tapping or squeezing should do the trick.
Let us live so that when we come to die, even the undertaker will be sorry -- Mark Twain
As an erstwhile musician, my opinion is that conductors are overrated. Once you learn the music you should be able to perform by listening to the others in the group.
I played in a professional orchestra where the conductor gave a downbeat, a rest, and the orchestra had to play the opening note in unison without any indication from the conductor. It worked fine. There a many groups playing very complicated music, with abrupt and gradual changes in tempo, without a conductor. Jazz and jam bands do this without a conductor and improvisationally, although often one of the players is a leader. If the choir is a capella, the conductor could give a couple of taps with the baton on the music stand to set the tempo at the start of a piece. Perhaps the blind singer lacks confidence: go ahead and make a few mistakes rather than be constantly behind. If there's a particularly rough bit join in afterwards. The best advice is the same as to a sighted musician: listen.
Blind people have much larger areas of their brain devoted to hearing, and some are very gifted musicians. Stevie Wonder, Doc Watson, many others. In China street musicians are almost always blind. I like this about China.
Verbum caro factum est
Simple, replace the baton with a starter's pistol..
Multiple steps:
:>)
If this works, please send me royalty or idea money if you're grateful. JK. No, maybe if you do make money, gimme! (alternate-6 and alternate-7 from brother on phone. Thanks!) Note that the alternate clickings will match what the baton is doing in real-geometric space!
1 - modify baton to include an IR-led (infrared wavelength Light Emitting Diode) so that motion tracking of the baton's moving tip can be done easily without bothering other people in the orchestra or the audience with a visible or flashing or distracting red or green LED
2 - set up some sort of motion tracking system that can track the IR led and come up with X-position and Y-position and possibly also X-velocity and Y-velocity
3 - calculate X-velocity as the derivative of the X-position, calculate the X-acceleration as the derivative of the X-velocity with respect to time; do the same for Y-position to calculate Y-velocity and Y-acceleration
4 - when you hit zero-crossings for X-velocity (e.g. X-velocity goes from positive [right to left perhaps] to negative [left to right], then the X-clicker is activated
5 - when you hit zero-crossings for X-velocity (e.g. Y-velocity goes from positive [down to up perhaps] to negative [up to down], then the Y-clicker is activated
6 - hide/place X-clicker in the right-foot, maybe at the heel-pad/ankle region or right under the big-toe, whichever the user likes best
7 - hide/place Y-clicker in the left-foot
.
alternate 6 - X-clicker-A goes under little toe of right foot, X-click-A is activated when the baton goes from (left--right) to (right-to-left), which means it hit the right-extent of travel and reversed; X-click-B goes under the big toe of right foot and it clicks when the baton stops going (from right-to-left) and reverses direction to go (from left-to-right), which is the left-most extent of travel.
alternate 7 - do like alternate 6 but place one clicker at the back of the heel Y-click-min which clicks when the baton changes from traveling downwards to traveling back upwards, and tape Y-click-MAX along the calf, maybe 6 inches up or so, and Y-click-MAX clicks when the baton stops traveling up and changes direction to go down. This is an intuitive mapping of what the baton is doing.
A cattle prod might be a bit rough, but in theory it ought to be possible to write a program to optically convert the points of inflection in the curved path of the baton into a signal that can be transmitted to the singer by a haptic "bump" from a device (like a phone, for instance) sitting in the singer's pocket. The only difficulty might be latency (which would have to be imperceptible), so your code would need to be fairly efficient.
Sounds interesting. I might even start doing something with this myself if I find time.
Putting a bluetooth accelerometer on the baton would be nice.
The least invasive solution would involve image processing, but I expect the specialized algorithm be finicky and I worry about frame rates.
One thing to consider is that people actually have fairly low voluntary reaction times, so a lot of the coordination may come from viewing the physical preparation for the stroke and not the stroke itself.
I seem to remember that when Penn and Teller were guests at the Philadelphia Philharmonic, they had a great randomizer as to what song they would play last. The entire orchestra was blindfolded. The song was selected, and shown to the audience. Then Penn stepped up to the box, tapped his conductor's wand three times, and the orchestra playedthe correct final song, without a hitch.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
take a kinect and write a program to track the baton.
transmit that in ultra low latency (wired) to piezo thumpers to touch your friend on a spot on his chest or leg or wherever based on the downbeat or whichever per timesignature.
systems needed:
kinect software to track motion of the baton
audio beat matching software to interface with motion tracking
hardware interface for beat toucher.
They're using their grammar skills there.
Install an IR LED on the baton. Google "LED throwies" for what you need. Most IR LEDs have a fairly narrow beam so sand down the lens to scatter the light more.
Then get some IR cameras to track them. Any cheap webcam will do. Add an IR filter by having an UNUSED roll of film developed. Install one camera watching from your position, and possibly one to the side, above, or under the conductor if Z-motion is important.
Then get some motion tracking software like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeTrack
Now you have a signal. Use that to drive any output device you want. Three cell phone vibrators for X, Y and Z might work. Audio might work - try making a tone that changes in pitch with the derivative of the baton's velocity. You should get little chirps when the conductor makes sharp motions. Some blind folks can still sense light - they have basically one pixel per eye. It might be possible to give them glasses with LEDs mounted so they can see flashes.
Gonna take a couple minor hacks, but the technology is already present.
Use an air drum stick (or similar, say, wimote?) for the baton. This needs to output to a device that can communicate to other devices.
Built an app for android cell phones (everybody has one now, Iphone is another option of course) so the output from the baton is translated to vibration at the phone via wifi.
While certain aspects are going to be lost, timing and emphasis can be retained.
Phil
Laugh, it's good for you!
I am in a college level band, and our director regularly makes us start pieces with our eyes closed (in practice, though a concert wouldn't be out of the question). We do it entirely by listening to the collective breath in and breathing in the tempo, so a quick breath for a fast tempo and a slower breath for a slower one. It does take practice on the part of the choir or band, but it works very well. Everyone needs to be taught not to hold in the breath, but release it immediately. We don't have any blind members, but it actually helps fix ragged starts very well. With choirs it is actually a bit harder because the directors don't give as much prep, but with practice it could work the same way and the entire choir would be better for it.
Better yet, a lightsabre. Then you just listen for the pitch and volume of the hum.
I almost had an answer but then I realized there was a big flaw, but here goes anyways. 1. As others here suggested, place infra-red LEDs on the tips of the batons. 2. Use a video camera focused on where the batons will be throughout the performance and set the contrast really high. The LEDs will appear very brightly on any video monitor. 3a. (flawed part) Use a blind tongue display (TDU) which enables the singer to "see" the batons, except now the singer is no longer a singer, they are a hummer because they've got a piece of hardware stuck to their tongue. Still might be feasible to adapt the Brainport Vision TDU to another sensitive location. 3b. There may be some piezoelectric displays for the blind coming onto the market that could be used in order to feel the moving baton image.
That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
I know the question is directed to high tech solutions, but if I were gifted enough to be in a choir, despite my blindness, then I would work with the conductor to begin my singing on the second beat and to do so in such a way as to blend with the voices unobtrusively.
Also, conductors usually emphasize the last beat before singers or instruments are to begin. A audible cue could work so long as the music were not distracted from.
All kinds of concessions are made for the handicapped in the modern world. It would seem that something could be arrange that would be acceptable without waiting for a high tech solution.
Simply have the singer stand in front of the choirmaster and replace the baton with a cattle prod. That should start the singing on cue.
In concert bands and orchestras frankly the director is not in control. The tubas and Sousaphones have enough tube length that the player must lead the beat by a fraction of a second. The reality is that the director's baton is actually following the big brass in timing. Since a chorus is often without the deep brass sections you need a device that will send you an audio cue slightly ahead of the choral director. I suspect that a portable or hand held PC like device could be programmed to measure the tempo and report the beat slightly ahead. It also would need to vary the intensity of the cue so that you would no when to play forte or pianissimo.
You can get what I am describing by looking at marching bands. The last row in the band will be the Sousaphones. The Drum Major is pretty much invisible to most of the band members so it really is not the drum major controlling either the pace of the march nor the pace of the music. It is the sousaphones and they are pointed right over the heads of the band members. And it is most likely feeling the sound and not hearing the sound that cues in the players. Think about all the noise in a stadium and the cheering etc.. If you are playing a clarinet or other instrument you won't be aware of the Sousaphones much or at all. But they are controlling the pace at all times. The drum major blows his whistle when the piece is finished and when a piece is to be started and puts on quite a show. The low brass knows what pace to set from rehearsals. And the bulk and weight of the Sousaphones comes into play as it is obvious that if the pace were too quick the Sousaphones could not keep up with the marches at all. Very few conductors want to admit that the low brass is running the show. Large drums can also do the same sort of function at times.
Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever sung in a choir in which the conductor uses a baton. It's standard in bands, but it doesn't seem to be so much in choral work, at least in my circles.
Now that I think about it more, the few times I've conducted choirs I don't think I've used a stick, even when one was available. It seems wrong putting an instrument in my hand when the musicians don't have one.
Cogito, ergo sig.
Instead of having a specially-made or retrofitted baton, how about having the area in front of the podium encased in a magnetic field like that of a theremin, such that the baton would provide data on horizontal position by pitch and vertical position by volume. That would give you all the data you need to feed to whatever peripheral signals the musician (come to think of it, an earbud with the output would help for the beginning of the piece, but it might be too distracting for things like tempo changes.
If you do enough rehearsal you can sing the whole thing without a baton.
Bonus you can get rid of the choir master.
Ever tried one of those batons? If you put anything of weight on the end, it will seriously impede the director in his/her movements and expression. Also, it's way more than just the up/down motion. Anyone that was ever in a decent choir/orchestra will know that the director has two hands, the baton goes left right as well (up-down is only for 2/4 beat) and the direction the director looks and stands has meaning as well. The amplitude of the baton, and lifting or pushing motions of the director indicate volume and expression... There is so much more than the simple tempo directions that the tip of a baton indicate.
Maybe using a kinect as sensor device might pick up at least a few of these channels. Transferring the channels to a sight impaired musician will be a challenge. If you're seriously going to invest in this technology, you'll want a solution that will work for at least 90% of instrumentalists/vocalists without impairing them seriously in their motions. Now I start thinking of a practical way to do this, you may want to use the motion feedback motors of game controllers placed strategically (no, not there) under the clothing of the musician. Single wobbles could be used to indicate small baton movements, double and more for stronger movements. A second motor could indicate the first beat and there must be quite a few combinations possible that could be distinct and short enough for the musician to accurately follow most gestures of the director. Depending on controller size, you could probably use standard wireless controllers, giving you 0 development in hardware costs, only software and "training" for all involved.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Get a longer baton and hit him with it
... a job for the WiiMote
tell the guy to give you an audible cue of the beat?
For lack of seeing a comment discussing this option: the Theremin can be used as a device to track gestures, position and movements of a conductors hands or baton. It is based on an electric field which is perturbed by hands, controlling frequency and amplitude of the generated sound. It would require some signal processing to adapt it to a singer, either by passing the theremin sounds into an earplug or modifying the signal to input a sensing device, like a rotor, small current or pinching device.
My ears replace my eyes
Argh. What an image for a Monday morning. Good title for a Harlan Ellison story though.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
You might want to talk to Shelley Katz of Symphonova [http://www.symphonova.com/]. He's been working on integrating digitally produced music into an orchestra. The system uses an instrumented baton, and it should be possible to output a click track, or something more theremin-like, so that you can hear using an earbud what the conductor is indicating.
If you don't want to use a human standing next to the blind singer then it could be solved with some nice cheap modern technology.
If you could practically do it, attach a MEMS accelerometer (or gyro) to the baton and track the velocity of the tip (or equivalent reference point). Either wired or wirelessly transmit that velocity data to small processing box that drives a haptic device to alert the singer. Unfortunately I'm not entirely familiar with the visual clues of conducting, I've had a look at the patterns of motion on wikipedia and it seems the beat occurs at the point of zero vertical velocity following a downward stroke. If this is the case it should be relatively easy to process the velocity/acceleration information. An algorithm that has an understanding of the expected stroke would be better than a simply velocity test - it would potentially be more reliable as it will have a degree of inference, but minimizing latency may make that problematic.
In terms of haptic feedback, a sharp tap to the leg or hand would probably be better than a vibration as it has a more defined temporal position. Of course with a tap the processing algorithm has to be reliable...... alternatively a vibration could simply be engineered so that the magnitude of the vibration corresponds to the vertical position of the baton. This would mean more processing of the information by the singer, but is trivial to build electronically.
An Arduino would be perfect for the processing/driver.
Well, maybe.
I've been seeing a children's toy on the shelves recently known as V-drums, basically it's a pair of "drum sticks" that contain simple gyroscopic motion sensors - and produce drum sounds as you swing them around, the programming being made to associate various movements with the locations of your non-existent drums.
I bet that if the choirmaster uses one of these, instead of a baton, with some open-ended headphones for the singer - they'd end up with different drum sounds for the most crucial movements - and the singer could simply learn which ones to listen out for.
This makes perfect sense musically as drums are MEANT to be the lead-sound in most forms of music (indeed, it could be said that in rock and pop the drummer doubles as the band's conductor*) , so while I doubt this toy is good enough for any real drummer to enjoy it may just be good enough to solve this problem, and it's really quite cheap. About 30 USD (at the current exchange rate).
*I am a drummer, so I may be a tiny bit biassed :P
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
I would ask someone to tap the beat out with their foot next to you.
To everyone recommending some tracking software for the baton that would require ANY modification to the baton; probably has not dealt with a conductor.
...or just make a special baton with a tiny accelerometer, wirelessly connected. Would make more sense than attempts at CV.
Ezekiel 23:20
Seems like the obvious solution is to have a seeing member of the choir tap on the blind persons arm or back.
I saw a device for a deaf person that translated sounds into larger vibrations in a belt. Maybe if you put an accelerometer in the conductor's baton and then wirelessly transmit that data to some type of haptic feedback device. This would give you a lot more information about what the conductor was doing than a simple beat measure would. I imagine a 2-D grid of sensations over your back that interpreted the batons movements would allow you to sense the baton being raised in anticipation of the down beat and so on. An array of pancake vibrators could be sewn into a vest or even applied with adhesive. Hooking up with a hackerspace local to you would probably be a good starting point.
"It's because they're stupid, that's why. That's why everybody does everything." -Homer Simpson
Well, you almost got it, but the point is that if you have:
-0- the conductor
-1- nonblindsingers following the conductor's lead by visualizing the baton's movement and rhythm and direction
-2- blind singer(s) following the nonblindsingers lead, unable to see the conductor pointing a finger or raising his hand to indicate that another transition about to occur
--- the delay at 2 is worse than the delay at 1. The blind singer has the visual latency of the rest of the band added to the auditory latency of the blind singer.
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Also note that visual feedback is an out-of-band signal relative to speaking and listening and thus a singer who is following the other singers is using in-band signaling. I'm just throwing this out there, but I think it's important (at least when I've been in choir) to watch what the conductor/choir leader is doing with the baton, not just what they're mouthing (choir leaders often mouth or sing the song along with the choir singers).
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So, yes, they could join in a word or two later, but it's not just about the delay in starting, it's also about anticipating the next tempo change and not always being two steps behind for every tempo change or for the start of every new phrasing.
Are these tempo changes really surprises to choir singers? One would think that they generally practice their material.
re : Are these tempo changes really surprises to choir singers? One would think that they generally practice their material. :>)
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I see your point. No, normally, there should not be a surprise tempo change. But sometimes, it's not always possible to anticipate the conductor's "mood" or "feel". Sometimes, one singer's head is in one place and their prediction of what is about to happen does not match what really is about to happen, even though they have practiced it.
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Or sometimes, the conductor is "in a mood" and does things differently. Think about jazz music: how performer A affects performer B, and how performer B's response can affect performer A. There's a give and take in jazz. Not so much with a chorus. But you are right, there ought not be a surprise change in tempo, or a change in emphasis on a particular phrase $X_5$ instead of $X_4$, but sometimes it does happen. I do, however, concede the validity of your point in 97% of times (made up statistic to indicate that I think you're pretty much mostly right).
Most conductors I have met (which happens to number quite a lot) are quite picky about the batons they use. If they don't "feel" right, they often prefer to use none at all. Also, an accelerometer will usually introduce a noticeable degree of latency, which entirely defeats the purpose.
accelerometers and audible cues: bah!
Tie a thread or string to your lapel or sleeve and have the conductor hold the other end. At the right point of the stroke you'll feel a tug -- at which point the conductor can let go anyway.
Cost of materials: a couple of pennies at most
resolution: pretty much whatever desired
calibration: just practice a couple of times together and you'll have it.
A man with sound judgment would not sing that song.
If the baton never touches the sheet stand, maybe someone your knows in the choir can work out some system of a touch to the hand at those critical times. I knew a blind trumpet player who learned by ear, but had the same issues. Once he got going and the tempo stayed the same he was good, but his fellow brass player next to him would rotate his foot over and tap the blind guy's foot to signal the start or some other point that he had no other reference to.