The Body as a Future Instrument: Improving Musical Interaction in Extended Reality Environments using Biometric Interfaces

Project ID: 2531bd1653

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Research Theme: Information and Communication Technologies

Research Area(s): Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
Engineering
Mathematical sciences

UCL Lead department: Culture, Communication and Media

Department Website

Lead Supervisor: Chris Rhodes

Project Summary:

In a new era of immersive tech and artificial intelligence, understanding how we can better and more intuitively interact with digital systems, through human-led interaction, is essential. Extended reality (XR) environments are currently used across medicine, engineering, education and the arts in order to gain different and often hidden perspectives on problems. XR is appealing in such fields because of the highly interactive and embodied nature of the technology. For example, seeing how our DNA helix is comprised, as if it were in front of us.

In the arts, however, consumer-level XR equipment does not allow us to interact with digital environments in the same way as we are naturally musically expressive in the real world. The hardware and software provided does not allow for faithful or creative representations of musicality. This project investigates how we can design software, instruments and new frameworks for heightened musical expression within extended reality environments by using in-house advanced specialist biosensors, based at UCL’s new (2025) Spatial Computing Lab (SCL). The successful candidate will collaborate with academics within the SCL holding expertise across wide research areas, including but not limited to: game design, critical studies, creative AI, computer science, music, animation and education.

This studentship aims to promote a culture of inclusion and diversity. In this context, we particularly welcome applications from candidates with cross-disciplinary experience who are keen to work across both technical and humanities dimensions, including but not limited to having a strong interest/background in human-computer interaction (HCI), computational art, digital signal processing, extended reality (XR) design and artificial intelligence (AI). Ideal candidates will have experience (or willingness to learn) in one or more of: