Eduardo Reck Miranda

University of Plymouth | UoP · Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research (ICCMR)

In this paper, we present a bespoke brain-computer interface (BCI), which was developed for a person with severe motor-impairments, who was previously a Violinist, to allow performing and composing music at home. It uses steady-state visually evoked potential (SSVEP) and adopts a dry, low-density, and wireless electroencephalogram (EEG) headset. In...

We propose Quantum Brain Networks (QBraiNs) as a new interdisciplinary field integrating knowledge and methods from neurotechnology, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing. The objective is to develop an enhanced connectivity between the human brain and quantum computers for a variety of disruptive applications. We foresee the emergence of...

Audio segmentation and sound event detection are crucial topics in machine listening that aim to detect acoustic classes and their respective boundaries. It is useful for audio-content analysis, speech recognition, audio-indexing, and music information retrieval. In recent years, most research articles adopt segmentation-by-classification. This tec...

We report on the first proof-of-concept system demonstrating how one can control a qubit with mental activity. We developed a method to encode neural correlates of mental activity as instructions for a quantum computer. Brain signals are detected utilising electrodes placed on the scalp of a person, who learns how to produce the required mental act...

In recent years, machine learning has been widely adopted to automate the audio mixing process. Automatic mixing systems have been applied to various audio effects such as gain-adjustment, stereo panning, equalization, and reverberation. These systems can be controlled through visual interfaces, providing audio examples, using knobs, and semantic d...

We report on the first proof-of-concept system demonstrating how one can control a qubit with mental activity. We developed a method to encode neural correlates of mental activity as instructions for a quantum computer. Brain signals are detected utilizing electrodes placed on the scalp of a person, who learns how to produce the required mental act...

There has been tremendous progress in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for music, in particular for musical composition and access to large databases for commercialisation through the Internet. We are interested in further advancing this field, focusing on composition. In contrast to current black-box AI methods, we are championing an interpretable com...

Quantum computing is a nascent technology, which is advancing rapidly. There is a long history of research into using computers for music. Nowadays computers are absolutely essential for the music economy. Thus, it is very likely that quantum computers will impact the music industry in time to come. This chapter lays the foundations of the new fiel...

Audio segmentation and sound event detection are crucial topics in machine listening that aim to detect acoustic classes and their respective boundaries. It is useful for audio-content analysis, speech recognition, audio-indexing, and music information retrieval. In recent years, most research articles adopt segmentation-by-classification. This tec...

We propose Quantum Brain Networks (QBraiNs) as a new interdisciplinary field integrating knowledge and methods from neurotechnology, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing. The objective is to develop an enhanced connectivity between the human brain and quantum computers for a variety of disruptive applications. We foresee the emergence of...

Music and speech detection provides us valuable information regarding the nature of content in broadcast audio. It helps detect acoustic regions that contain speech, voice over music, only music, or silence. In recent years, there have been developments in machine learning algorithms to accomplish this task. However, broadcast audio is generally we...

Segmenting audio into homogeneous sections such as music and speech helps us understand the content of audio. It is useful as a pre-processing step to index, store, and modify audio recordings, radio broadcasts and TV programmes. Deep learning models for segmentation are generally trained on copyrighted material, which cannot be shared. Annotating...

This unique reference presents comprehensive coverage of the latest advances in research into enabling machines to listen to and compose new music. It includes chapters introducing what is known about human musical intelligence and on how this knowledge can be simulated with artificial intelligence (AI). The development of interactive musical robot...

This chapter presents a quantum computing-based approach to study and harness neuronal correlates of mental activity for the development of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) systems. It introduces the notion of a logic of the mind, where neurophysiological data are encoded as logical expressions representing mental activity. Effective logical expressi...

This article introduces GeMS, a system for music composition informed by synthetic biology. GeMS generates music with simulations of genetic processes, such as transcription, translation, and protein folding, with which biological systems render chains of amino acids from DNA strands. The system comprises the following components: the Miranda machi...

Quantum computing is emerging as a promising technology, which is built on the principles of subatomic physics. By the time of writing, fully fledged practical quantum computers are not widely available. But research and development are advancing rapidly. Various software simulators are already available. And a few companies have already started to...

Music provides a means of communicating affective meaning. However, the neurological mechanisms by which music induces affect are not fully understood. Our project sought to investigate this through a series of experiments into how humans react to affective musical stimuli and how physiological and neurological signals recorded from those participa...

Quantum computing is emerging as an alternative computing technology, which is built on the principles of subatomic physics. In spite of continuing progress in developing increasingly more sophisticated hardware and software, access to quantum computing still requires specialist expertise that is largely confined to research laboratories. Moreover,...

Computer-generated musical performances are often criticised for being unable to match the expressivity found in performances by humans. In this paper, we discuss the role of errors when modelling expressive music performance, which concerns the physical manipulation of the instrument by the performer. In addition, a study on the motor and biomecha...

The ability of music to evoke activity changes in the core brain structures that underlie the experience of emotion suggests that it has the potential to be used in therapies for emotion disorders. A large volume of research has identified a network of sub-cortical brain regions underlying music-induced emotions. Additionally, separate evidence fro...

Our research concerns the development of biocomputers using electronic components grown out of biological material. This article reports the development of a novel biological memristor and an approach to using such biomemristors to build interactive generative music systems. The memristor is an electronic component regarded as a resistor with memor...

This project aimed to develop a computing system capable of generating sequences of orchestral instrument combinations matching specific perceptual qualities represented by timbre properties.

Male humpback whales produce hierarchically structured songs, primarily during the breeding season. These songs gradually change over the course of the breeding season, and are generally population specific. However, instances have been recorded of more rapid song changes where the song of a population can be replaced by the song of an adjacent pop...

Orchestration is a compositional practice that consists of writing for several instruments. This process often involves harnessing each instrument's sound to create sonic textures that could not be achieved with a single instrument. These sound fusions are usually sought by composers to express specific perceptual effects. However, the number of po...

‘Many worlds’ is a short narrative live-action film written and directed so as to provide multiple linear routes through the plot to one of four endings, and designed for showing in a cinema environment. At two points during the film, decisions are made based on audience bio-signals as to which plot route to take. The use of bio-signals is to allow...

Brain-computer music interfaces (BCMIs) may be used to modulate affective states, with applications in music therapy, composition, and entertainment. However, for such systems to work they need to be able to reliably detect their user's current affective state.

Our research is aimed at gaining a better understanding of the electronic properties of organisms in order to engineer novel bioelectronic systems and computing architectures based on biology. This specific paper focuses on harnessing the unicellular slime mold Physarum polycephalum to develop bio-memristors (or biological memristors) and bio-compu...

Beat perception is fundamental to how we experience music, and yet the mechanism behind this spontaneous building of the internal beat representation is largely unknown. Existing findings support links between the tempo (speed) of the beat and enhancement of electroencephalogram (EEG) activity at tempo-related frequencies, but there are no studies...

Articulatory speech synthesis provides an alternative to the state of the art concatenative and formant systems, holding potential for more versatile and expressive artificial speech due to its physical modelling basis. However, a major limitation of practical articulatory synthesis is gaining adequate control of the complex underlying physical mod...

Timbre is a musical attribute that has been largely discussed among the research community. However, there is still a lot to investigate, especially in regards to timbre and orchestration, which involves polyphonic timbre: a phenomenon that emerges from the mixture of instruments playing simultaneously. In this paper, we report on the development o...

Research on timbre has produced a lot of work over the last 50 years, whether on analysis of single tone, instrument timbre, synthetic timbre, or perception and emotion. However, there is still a lot to investigate for polyphonic timbre. This aspect is perhaps one of the biggest challenges in the field of computer-aided orchestration. This paper re...

Many existing Concatenative Sound Synthesis (CSS) systems offer some form of user-controlled flexibility to its users. For example, users can select different audio features to be included as the basis of similarity between target and source sounds, or be provided with options to alter the pitch or loudness, or given the flexibility to set the simi...

Music is a complex multimodal medium experienced not only via sounds but also through body movement. Musical instruments can be seen as technological objects coupled with a repertoire of gestures. We present technical and conceptual issues related to the digital representation and mediation of body movement in musical performance. The paper reports...

This paper presents a knowledge-based, data-driven method for using data describing action-sound couplings collected from a group of people to generate multiple complex map-pings between the performance movements of a musician and sound synthesis. This is done by using a database of multimodal motion data collected from multiple subjects coupled wi...

Affectively driven algorithmic composition (AAC) is a rapidly growing field that exploits computer-aided composition in order to generate new music with particular emotional qualities or affective intentions. An AAC system was devised in order to generate a stimulus set covering nine discrete sectors of a two-dimensional emotion space by means of a...

In this paper, we report on the development of a perceptually orientated and automatic classification system of timbre content within orchestral audio samples. Here, we have decided to investigate polyphonic timbre, a phenomenon emerging from the mixture of instruments playing simultaneously. Moreover, we are focusing on the perception of the entir...

This chapter presents an account of our investigation into developing musical processing devices using biological components. Such work combines two vibrant areas of unconventional computing research: Physarum polycephalum and the memristor. P. polycephalum is a plasmodial slime mould that has been discovered to display behaviours that are consiste...

Advances in technology have had a significant impact on the way in which we produce and consume music. The music industry is most likely to continue progressing in tandem with the evolution of electronics and computing technology. Despite the incredible power of today’s computers , it is commonly acknowledged that computing technology is bound to p...

This chapter is an introduction to quantum computing in sound and music. This is done through a series of examples of research applying quantum computing and principles to musical systems. By this process, the key elements that differentiate quantum physical systems from classical physical systems will be introduced and what this implies for comput...

Our application of bionic engineering is novel: we are interested in developing hybrid hardware-wetware systems for music. This paper introduces receptacles for culturing Physarum polycephalum-based memristors that are highly accessible to the creative practitioner. The myxomycete Physarum polycephalum is an amorphous unicellular organism that has...

The emerging field of Unconventional Computing is developing new algorithms and computing architectures inspired by or implemented in biological, physical and chemical systems. We are investigating how Unconventional Computing may benefit the future of the music industry and related audio engineering technologies. In this chapter, after a brief int...

This pioneering text/reference explores how innovative new modes of computation may provide exciting new directions for future developments in the music industry, guiding the reader through the latest research in this emerging, interdisciplinary field. This work includes coverage of electronic music compositions and performances that incorporate un...

We report on a player evaluation of a pilot system for dynamic video game soundtrack generation. The system being evaluated generates music using an AI-based algorithmic composition technique to create score in real-time, in response to a continuously varying emotional trajectory dictated by gameplay cues. After a section of gameplay, players rated...

This paper reports on the outcomes of an approach to granular synthesis using the biological computing substrate Physarum polycephalum. The plasmodium of Physarum Polycephalum is unicellular with a myriad of diploid nuclei, which moves like a giant amoeba in its pursuit of food. The organism is amorphous, and although without a brain or any serving...

In the pursuit of creative interfaces for music making brain-computer interfacing (BCI) control methods offer limited usability especially in terms of providing simultaneous yet independent input controls. This article outlines the development of the hybrid brain-computer music interface (BCMI) and presents the work undertaken towards the design, i...

This paper introduces BioComputer Music, an experimental one piano duet between pianist and plasmodial slime mould Physarum polycephalum. This piece harnesses a system we have been developing, which we call BioComputer. BioComputer consists of an analogue circuit that encompasses components grown from the biological computing substrate Physarum pol...

In this paper two current related projects on music and dementia are described. One is a form of design science research. It details the making of a 60 min BBC radio program which was produced in collaboration with people living with dementia and experts and carers. The program consisted of a mixture of tunes and documentary segments. These discuss...

A machine system is designed to analyze the musical aspects during the live performance, allowing an interactive and dynamic flow of new expressions and also opening new compositional forms and multimodal methods. The focus of this approach is to measure the expressiveness from distinct characters during the performance of the musical piece while d...

Body movement and embodied knowledge play an important part in how we express and understand music. The gestures of a musician playing an instrument are part of a shared knowledge that contributes to musical expressivity by building expectations and influencing perception. In this study, we investigate the extent in which the movement vocabulary of...

Searching for audio samples within a library can be a tedious and time-consuming task. In this paper, we report on the design of a pilot automatic classification system that utilises timbral properties to automatically classify audio samples. At this stage of the study, we have decided to work only with orchestral audio samples. In addition, we con...

Humpback whales (Megaptera Novaengliae) present one of the most complex displays of cultural transmission amongst non-humans. During breeding seasons, male humpback whales create long, hierarchical songs, which are shared amongst a population. Every male in the population conforms to the same song in a population. During the breeding season these s...

An extensive study on the parameters influencing the pitch of a standard speaker in articulatory speech synthesis is presented. The speech synthesiser used is the articulatory synthesiser in PRAAT. Categorically, the repercussion of two parameters: Lungs and Cricothyroid on the average pitch of the synthesised sounds are studied. Statistical analys...

Objective: We aim to develop and evaluate an affective brain-computer music interface (aBCMI) for modulating the affective states of its users. Approach: An aBCMI is constructed to detect a user's current affective state and attempt to modulate it in order to achieve specific objectives (for example, making the user calmer or happier) by playing...

This paper studies the issues surrounding the search and selection process in a general CSS system which may affect the synthesis result, namely the homosonic segments. Homosonic segments are first termed in this study, where it refers to audio files which have one or more of the same sonic properties with each other, but do not sound the same acou...

This paper introduces Performance Without Borders and Embodied iSound, two sound installations performed at the 2016 Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival at Plymouth University. Sharing in common the use of smartphones to afford real-time audience participation, two bespoke distributed computer systems (Sherwell and Levinsky Music, respective...

Inspiration and compositional processes are eclectic and different for each composer. For example, some draw inspiration from literature or nature to inform their musical creativity while others use algorithms and computer programs. This paper introduces a computer-aided algorithmic composition system implemented in OpenMusic. We start the paper wi...

We present results into harnessing the memristive characteristics of Physarum polycephalum for computer music. Memristors are the recently discovered fourth fundamental passive circuit element that relates magnetic flux linkage and charge. Unlike the three established fundamental circuit elements, namely the capacitor, inductor, and resistor, the m...

The empirical investigation of cultural transmission phenomena in the animal kingdom is often a challenging task, especially if carried out on wild populations with vast home ranges. Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) present a striking example of cultural transmission. Within a population, all males in acoustic contact conform to a similar s...

It is widely acknowledged that music can communicate and induce a wide range of emotions in the listener. However, music is a highly-complex audio signal composed of a wide range of complex time- and frequency-varying components. Additionally, music-induced emotions are known to differ greatly between listeners. Therefore, it is not immediately cle...

Interactive sonification can provide a platform for demonstration and education as well as for monitoring and investigation. We present a system designed to demonstrate the facilities of the UK's most advanced large-scale research wave tank. The interactive sonification of water waves in the “ocean basin” wave tank at Plymouth University consisted...

An affectively driven music generation system is described and evaluated. The system is developed for the intended eventual use in human-computer interaction systems such as brain-computer music interfaces. It is evaluated for its ability to induce changes in a listeners affective state. The affectively-driven algorithmic composition system was use...

Body movement and embodied knowledge play an important part in how we express and understand music. The gestures of a musician playing an instrument are part of a shared knowledge that contributes to musical expressivity by building expectations and influencing perception. In this study, we investigate the extent in which the movement vocabulary of...

Affective algorithmic composition is a growing field that combines perceptually motivated affective computing strategies with novel music generation. This article presents work toward the development of one application. The long-term goal is to develop a responsive and adaptive system for inducing affect that is both controlled and validated by bio...