Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) Based Musical Composition

In this paper we present, for the first time in Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) research, a novel application for music composition. We developed, based on the I²R NeuroComm BCI platform, a novel Graphical User Interface (GUI) to allow composition of short melodies by selecting individual musical notes. The user can select any individual musical key (quarter note with Do, Ré, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si, Do, etc.), insert a silence (quarter rest), delete (Del) the last note to correct the composition, or listen (Play) to the final melody, shown in text form and as a musical partition. Our BCI system for music composition has been successfully demonstrated and shown to be, with very short training time, effective and easy to use. This work is the first step towards a more intelligent BCI system that will extend current BCI-based Virtual Reality (VR) navigation for e.g. exploring a Virtual Synthesizer Museum/shop, in which the user would first move around within the virtual museum/shop and at the point of interest would try the synthesizer by composing music. More advanced modes (e.g. musical puzzle) with various levels of difficulty will be added in future developments as well as using the Open Vibe environment and mobile platforms such as the Apple´s iPAD.