简介: |
Music Therapy (MT) is an effective intervention to a number of physical and mental diseases. Despite the clear benefit of MT, its deployments are limited, particularly in Asia including Singapore. The current challenge of MT is the shortage of qualified music therapists to serve the vast population and high cost of the therapy service which most patients cannot afford. We envision that computer tools/systems can help to make such intervention accessible and affordable, and advocate a Computer-Supported Music Therapy (CSMT) which combines the strengths from both humans (e.g., music therapists and patients) and computers.
I will introduce two CSMT projects at NUS School of Computing with demos:
With the first project we intend to develop MusicalWalk, a web based system which allows the music therapists to find suitable music pieces to facilitate rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS)-based gait training for patients with Parkinson’s disease. Our current research focus is on the development of a domain-specific music search engine to enable both therapist-prescribed and client-preferred music to be found effortlessly.
With the second project we intend to develop MusicalLife, a collaborative music making system leveraging on clients’ own mobile phones. We hypothesize that group music-making can be used to improve cognitive abilities, social connections and mental fitness, particularly in the case of elderly people. This is a collaborative project which involves three faculties at NUS: School of Computing, YST Conservatory of Music and YLL School of Medicine. |
