The Interactive Music Awareness Program for Cochlear Implant Users
- Submitting institution
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University of Southampton
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 71142028
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
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- Location
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- Brief description of type
- University of Southampton
- Open access status
- -
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2015
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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4
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This research developed a programme enabling people with cochlear implants (CI) to improve/recover music appreciation. The output comprises journal paper, website and software, and supporting materials including video. A key aspect of the research (as outlined in the journal paper) was the participation of CI users in a rigorous iterative development process, avoiding simple perceptual training and taking a holistic approach where users could learn how their CI would respond to different musical attributes and help them discover music which they could enjoy. This is significant since each CI user has a different perceptual experience from their implant. The ‘Interactive Music Awareness Programme’ (IMAP) is the first online resource of its kind, allowing CI users to access the programme from home, rather than travelling to CI centres for sessions - valuable since many patients are elderly or very young - also providing access to users worldwide with different levels of national provision. To date over 350 CI users and over 200 professionals have registered on the website. The project involved a multi-disciplinary team at the University of Southampton: two audiologists, music therapist, composer and music technologist (Polfreman). Polfreman’s contribution involved co-design and development of rehabilitation apps: the user interfaces to interact with, the musical processing and system of deploying these via the internet and website. Specifically, this involved first, ascertaining how the IMAP could be made accessible via the Internet, evaluating available technologies; second, designing and implementing a system of shared data and functionality between web site and IMAP applications with a managed system to scan the site for content and provide packaged downloads and updates in an extensible manner, involving Max/MSP, Java, JSON, xml and html; and third, re-designing and extending the apps, in response to participant feedback and team discussions, to improve CI user experience.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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