Updated on Saturday, June 04, 2005, 00:00 IST

Washington, June 04: Researchers from the University of South California (USC) claim to have developed a technology that allows a user to drive a piece of music using only a wheel and foot control while driving.

Elaine Chew, an assistant professor of industrial and systems from the USC who developed the Expression Synthesis Project (ESP) interface and presented it at the New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) 2005 conference at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, says that ESP "provides a driving interface for musical expression".

"It allows everyone a chance to experience what it's like to perform. It lets them appreciate the decisions made by a musician in interpreting the music. It attempts to provide a driving interface for musical expression," Chew was quoted as saying.

ESP starts with a piece of music in the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) format, one that has been converted from the printed score.

For their research Chew and his fellow researchers selected Hungarian Dance no five in G minor by Johannes Brahms, as it contains numerous moments of extreme speed ups and slow downs.

For guiding the musical performance, information from the score was used to create a "road" corresponding to the piece. The road's turn provided information to the driver when to slow down or speed up. While the foot pedals control the tempo and the volume, buttons on the steering wheel act as pedals on the piano providing the driver the option to sustain or cut the note.

Chew who believes that the final product would be in the hands of the consumers within the next two years, says, that "the premise of ESP is that driving serves as an effective metaphor for expressive music performance". "Not everyone can play an instrument but almost anyone can drive a car. By using a familiar interface, ESP aims to provide a compelling metaphor for expressive performance so as to make high-level expressive decisions accessible to non-experts," he added.

Bureau Report