(Extract from opening paragraph) Recent years have seen a proliferation of technologies aimed at ... more (Extract from opening paragraph) Recent years have seen a proliferation of technologies aimed at improving the independence of older people, for example assistive technologies and monitoring devices, and increased attention is being paid to age friendly and disability-friendly design. In the UK, use of the internet is well established in the general population with 80 per cent of households having internet access in 2012 (ONS 2012). Although older people on the whole use the internet less and for fewer purposes than younger age groups, people in their 50s and 60s are increasingly closing the digital gap (Ofcom 2012; McNair 2012). Despite this, older people remain less likely than the general population to use new technologies such as smart phones and tablets that are not specifically designed as ‘assistive technologies’. … The reasons are many and complex, but include: computer jargon; the cost of acquiring devices, maintaining and updating them; age related changes; a lack access to information and what might be useful; and an absence of opportunities to try things out (Charness and Boot, 2009; Hakkarainen 2012; Hill et al. 2008). Also some older people are reported to be ‘just not interested in owning a tablet’ and not ‘know (or want to learn) how to use one’ (Rainie et al. 2012).
PurposeRestoration of walking ability is a key goal to both stroke survivors and their therapists... more PurposeRestoration of walking ability is a key goal to both stroke survivors and their therapists. However, the intensity and duration of rehabilitation available after stroke can be limited by service constraints, despite the potential for improvement which could reduce health service demands in the long run. The purpose of this paper is to present qualitative findings from a study that explored the acceptability of a haptic device aimed at improving walking as part of an extended intervention in stroke rehabilitation.Design/methodology/approachPre-trial focus groups and post-trial interviews to assess the acceptability of Haptic Bracelets were undertaken with seven stroke survivors.FindingsFive themes were identified as impacting on the acceptability of the Haptic Bracelet: potential for improving quality of life; relationships with technology; important features; concerns; response to trial and concentration. Participants were interested in the haptic bracelet and hoped it would provide them with more confidence making them: feel safer when walking; have greater ability to take bigger strides rather than little steps; a way to combat mistakes participants reported making due to tiredness and reduced pain in knees and hips.Originality/valueHaptic Bracelets are an innovative development in the field of rhythmic cueing and stroke rehabilitation. The haptic bracelets also overcome problems encountered with established audio-based cueing, as their use is not affected by external environmental noise.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon 10.1108/JET-01-2021-0003
Musical data can be analysed, combined, transformed and exploited for diverse purposes. However, ... more Musical data can be analysed, combined, transformed and exploited for diverse purposes. However, despite the proliferation of digital libraries and repositories for music, infrastructures and tools, such uses of musical data remain scarce. As an initial step to help fill this gap, we present a survey of the landscape of musical data on the Web, available as a Linked Open Dataset: the musoW dataset of catalogued musical resources. We present the dataset and the methodology and criteria for its creation and assessment. We map the identified dimensions and parameters to existing Linked Data vocabularies, present insights gained from SPARQL queries, and identify significant relations between resource features. We present a thematic analysis of the original research questions associated with surveyed resources and identify the extent to which the collected resources are Linked Data-ready.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers music theorists and cognitive musicologists the means to expr... more Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers music theorists and cognitive musicologists the means to express theories unambiguously, through the implementation of computational models. Any inconsistencies in a theory will be discovered during the encoding process, and, since the computer has no musical intuitions or experience, any obvious or assumed knowledge must be made explicit by the knowledge engineer. Our eventual goal is the development of an intelligent computer environment for students learning melody composition. This paper describes the development of one tool which will be used within the tutoring system: a program for the analysis and generation of melodies, based upon Eugene Narmour's (1990) ImplicationRealisation Model - a hypothetical theory for melody analysis. The tool is being developed using the declarative, logic-based language Prolog. In addition to encoding Narmour's analytical theory, we have designed extensions to the computational model which allow the gen...
Background Movement analysis in a clinical setting is frequently restricted to observational meth... more Background Movement analysis in a clinical setting is frequently restricted to observational methods to inform clinical decision making, which has limited accuracy. Fixed-site, optical, expensive movement analysis laboratories provide gold standard kinematic measurements; however, they are rarely accessed for routine clinical use. Wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) have been demonstrated as comparable, inexpensive, and portable movement analysis toolkits. MoJoXlab has therefore been developed to work with generic wearable IMUs. However, before using MoJoXlab in clinical practice, there is a need to establish its validity in participants with and without knee conditions across a range of tasks with varying complexity. Objective This paper aimed to present the validation of MoJoXlab software for using generic wearable IMUs for calculating hip, knee, and ankle joint angle measurements in the sagittal, frontal, and transverse planes for walking, squatting, and jumping in healthy...
BACKGROUND Rhythm, brain and the body are closely linked. Humans can synchronise their movement t... more BACKGROUND Rhythm, brain and the body are closely linked. Humans can synchronise their movement to auditory rhythms with little apparent effort. However, the ability to perform rhythmic movement can be severely disrupted due to neurological conditions. Even in cases where the ability to perceive rhythms remain, a neurological condition may affect the mechanisms controlling the muscles during movement. Having the gait rhythm disrupted brings severe asymmetries between steps, which lead to numerous physical problems – ranging from muscle degeneration to bone fractures – accentuating the patient’s condition. This paper focuses on people who have survived a stroke and are now suffering from hemiparesis – a neurological conditions affecting one side of the body unilaterally. Movement synchronisation via entrainment to auditory metronomes is known to improve gait; this paper presents the first systematic study of entrainment for gait rehabilitation via the haptic modality. OBJECTIVE This ...
(Extract from opening paragraph) Recent years have seen a proliferation of technologies aimed at ... more (Extract from opening paragraph) Recent years have seen a proliferation of technologies aimed at improving the independence of older people, for example assistive technologies and monitoring devices, and increased attention is being paid to age friendly and disability-friendly design. In the UK, use of the internet is well established in the general population with 80 per cent of households having internet access in 2012 (ONS 2012). Although older people on the whole use the internet less and for fewer purposes than younger age groups, people in their 50s and 60s are increasingly closing the digital gap (Ofcom 2012; McNair 2012). Despite this, older people remain less likely than the general population to use new technologies such as smart phones and tablets that are not specifically designed as ‘assistive technologies’. … The reasons are many and complex, but include: computer jargon; the cost of acquiring devices, maintaining and updating them; age related changes; a lack access to information and what might be useful; and an absence of opportunities to try things out (Charness and Boot, 2009; Hakkarainen 2012; Hill et al. 2008). Also some older people are reported to be ‘just not interested in owning a tablet’ and not ‘know (or want to learn) how to use one’ (Rainie et al. 2012).
PurposeRestoration of walking ability is a key goal to both stroke survivors and their therapists... more PurposeRestoration of walking ability is a key goal to both stroke survivors and their therapists. However, the intensity and duration of rehabilitation available after stroke can be limited by service constraints, despite the potential for improvement which could reduce health service demands in the long run. The purpose of this paper is to present qualitative findings from a study that explored the acceptability of a haptic device aimed at improving walking as part of an extended intervention in stroke rehabilitation.Design/methodology/approachPre-trial focus groups and post-trial interviews to assess the acceptability of Haptic Bracelets were undertaken with seven stroke survivors.FindingsFive themes were identified as impacting on the acceptability of the Haptic Bracelet: potential for improving quality of life; relationships with technology; important features; concerns; response to trial and concentration. Participants were interested in the haptic bracelet and hoped it would provide them with more confidence making them: feel safer when walking; have greater ability to take bigger strides rather than little steps; a way to combat mistakes participants reported making due to tiredness and reduced pain in knees and hips.Originality/valueHaptic Bracelets are an innovative development in the field of rhythmic cueing and stroke rehabilitation. The haptic bracelets also overcome problems encountered with established audio-based cueing, as their use is not affected by external environmental noise.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon 10.1108/JET-01-2021-0003
Musical data can be analysed, combined, transformed and exploited for diverse purposes. However, ... more Musical data can be analysed, combined, transformed and exploited for diverse purposes. However, despite the proliferation of digital libraries and repositories for music, infrastructures and tools, such uses of musical data remain scarce. As an initial step to help fill this gap, we present a survey of the landscape of musical data on the Web, available as a Linked Open Dataset: the musoW dataset of catalogued musical resources. We present the dataset and the methodology and criteria for its creation and assessment. We map the identified dimensions and parameters to existing Linked Data vocabularies, present insights gained from SPARQL queries, and identify significant relations between resource features. We present a thematic analysis of the original research questions associated with surveyed resources and identify the extent to which the collected resources are Linked Data-ready.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers music theorists and cognitive musicologists the means to expr... more Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers music theorists and cognitive musicologists the means to express theories unambiguously, through the implementation of computational models. Any inconsistencies in a theory will be discovered during the encoding process, and, since the computer has no musical intuitions or experience, any obvious or assumed knowledge must be made explicit by the knowledge engineer. Our eventual goal is the development of an intelligent computer environment for students learning melody composition. This paper describes the development of one tool which will be used within the tutoring system: a program for the analysis and generation of melodies, based upon Eugene Narmour's (1990) ImplicationRealisation Model - a hypothetical theory for melody analysis. The tool is being developed using the declarative, logic-based language Prolog. In addition to encoding Narmour's analytical theory, we have designed extensions to the computational model which allow the gen...
Background Movement analysis in a clinical setting is frequently restricted to observational meth... more Background Movement analysis in a clinical setting is frequently restricted to observational methods to inform clinical decision making, which has limited accuracy. Fixed-site, optical, expensive movement analysis laboratories provide gold standard kinematic measurements; however, they are rarely accessed for routine clinical use. Wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) have been demonstrated as comparable, inexpensive, and portable movement analysis toolkits. MoJoXlab has therefore been developed to work with generic wearable IMUs. However, before using MoJoXlab in clinical practice, there is a need to establish its validity in participants with and without knee conditions across a range of tasks with varying complexity. Objective This paper aimed to present the validation of MoJoXlab software for using generic wearable IMUs for calculating hip, knee, and ankle joint angle measurements in the sagittal, frontal, and transverse planes for walking, squatting, and jumping in healthy...
BACKGROUND Rhythm, brain and the body are closely linked. Humans can synchronise their movement t... more BACKGROUND Rhythm, brain and the body are closely linked. Humans can synchronise their movement to auditory rhythms with little apparent effort. However, the ability to perform rhythmic movement can be severely disrupted due to neurological conditions. Even in cases where the ability to perceive rhythms remain, a neurological condition may affect the mechanisms controlling the muscles during movement. Having the gait rhythm disrupted brings severe asymmetries between steps, which lead to numerous physical problems – ranging from muscle degeneration to bone fractures – accentuating the patient’s condition. This paper focuses on people who have survived a stroke and are now suffering from hemiparesis – a neurological conditions affecting one side of the body unilaterally. Movement synchronisation via entrainment to auditory metronomes is known to improve gait; this paper presents the first systematic study of entrainment for gait rehabilitation via the haptic modality. OBJECTIVE This ...
DMRN+11: Digital Music Research Network One-Day Workshop 2016, 2016
Algorithmic composition systems allow for the partial or total automation of music composition by... more Algorithmic composition systems allow for the partial or total automation of music composition by formal, computational means. Typical algorithmic composition systems generate nondeterministic music, meaning that multiple musical outcomes can result from the same algorithm - consequently the output is generally different each time the algorithm runs.
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