Other Engineering Commons^™

Furthering Development Of Smart Fabrics To Improve The Accessibility Of Music Therapy, Ellie Nguyen, Daisy Z. Fernandez-Reyes, Franceli L. Cibrian

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

In this paper, we present the design and development of HarmonicThreads, a smart, cost-effective fabric augmented by generative machine learning algorithms to create music in real time according to the user's interaction. In this manner, we hypothesize that individuals with sensory differences could take advantage of the fabric's flexibility, the music will adapt according to users' interaction, and the affordable hardware we propose will make it more accessible. We follow a design thinking methodology using data from a multidisciplinary team in Mexico and the United States. Then we will close this paper by discussing challenges in developing accessible smart fabrics …