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Ask Slashdot: How Can a Blind Singer 'See' the Choirmaster's Baton?

Posted by timothy on from the vinz-clortho-the-choirmaster dept.

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."

9 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. motion tracking video by femtobyte · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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).

    1. Re:motion tracking video by newcastlejon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Motion tracking seems excessive when the poster would be satisfied with a simple pulse. I would suggest an accelerometer mounted to baton/conductor and a rumble motor ripped from an old gamepad for the singer (or an earpiece).

      For a no-tech alternative try having the singer sit/stand near the conductor and have the latter tap their feet (hard) along with the baton.

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    2. Re:motion tracking video by femtobyte · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The downside of using "specific pitch tones" is confusing the heck out of the subconscious of someone trying to sing at some other particular pitch (to match the voices around them). Something broad-spectrum and atonal (a click, hiss, tick, or thump) can relay timing and position information, without interfering with (competing for attention in the brain) tonal perception.

    3. Re:motion tracking video by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      They already have motion sensitive batons. A person I know uses one to practice his conducting. His old one connected to the computer through a MIDI interface (and his new one uses USB) so that way the music would follow his conducting. It is interesting how much information just the baton conveys, especially through the way modern conductors form the ictus. He can control the tempo, dynamics and many other more minute things.

    4. Re:motion tracking video by Kell+Bengal · · Score: 5, Informative

      I would suggest an accelerometer mounted to baton/conductor and a rumble motor

      I'm a robotics researcher - some of my work includes developing aids for the blind. Of all the comments here, this is the sanest one and the one that would actually work for people with vision impairment. It's simple, it's cheap and it will WORK. We've had good success with similar systems for other tasks like navigation and playing soccer.

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  2. Have someone next to you squeeze your arm by sanpitch · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Have someone next to you squeeze your arm by Cow+Jones · · Score: 5, Informative

      FWIW, this is exactly what we do to cue a blind choir member.
      It's not a geeky solution, and it involves people touching each other, but it's very reliable.
      I can't imagine any sighted choir member refusing to do this.

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    2. Re:Have someone next to you squeeze your arm by martin-boundary · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's not a geeky solution, and it involves people touching each other, but it's very reliable.

      Ah, but I'm afraid that only solves 99.99% of cases. To fully solve the problem, you also have to deal with the 3 blind-choralists-in-a-row problem, which is well known to not have an analytic solution except in trivial cases. Perhaps a numerical approach using a Sobolev auditorium might work, though.

  3. Stand next to a sighted helper. by gd2shoe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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)

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