In this partly dramatised short film based on true events, a violinist brain damaged in an accident nearly 30 years ago is given the opportunity to take part in music making through new technology developed by Plymouth University and the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability in London.
Rosemary Johnson was a violinist with the Welsh National Opera Orchestra at the age of 22 when a car accident caused serious brain damage from which she lost the ability to speak and most movement.
In this project, an EEG cap (electrodes that read electrical impulses from the brain) is wired up to a computer that uses Brain Computer Interfacing software. Then, using just her thoughts and retina control, Johnson is able to select notes and musical phrases and to affect the intensity, timbre and tempo of music. In this film, she is able to participate in a performance of a work created for the purpose by project leader, Plymouth University professor Eduardo Miranda.
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