Brain Wave Music

Paras Kaul uses a brain computer interface (BCI) to generate music from brain wave data. The neural data is input to a computer and software converts the data to MIDI notes, which are assigned to digital instruments in the software. She then composes soundbytes into multiple audio tracks and creates brain wave music compositions. Her intent is to demonstrate how the brain produces fast-moving, chaotic sound when signaling in predominantly beta frequencies and slower, ambient sound when signaling in predominantly low frequencies. Brainwave Morphing, her brainwave music album takes the listener through a series of tracks composed from a variety of brainwave states.

Sound Healing

Currently, researchers and practitioners are exploring the effect of sound on the body. In earlier times the music of the spheres was a popular concept introducing the idea that the motion of planets and other entities in the cosmos produce music at varying frequencies, which can be heard either consciously or unconsciously. The harmonious rhythms of this music were said to influence human activity making babies smile when they hear the harmonic rhythms. 

Tai Chi Animation

Early in computer animation history, Kaul designed an animated figure doing the movement of Tai Chi Chuan and discovered the choreography of T’ai Chi Ch’uan movements is spherical, and energy created from the movement is  referred to as Qi.

In 1994 a bio-recliner was being tested at the Human Performance Institute of the Loma Linda University Rehabilitation Center in California, where Kaul worked as a research volunteer. The recliner chair was designed to input music through sensors located at key places in the chair for interaction with specific areas of the the physical body. Varying styles of music would be played, and the reactions of a person in the chair were monitored and analyzed. 

Edge Exhibition

SIGGRAPH 1994

At the Special Interest Group for Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH) Conference that year, an Kaul organized an exhibit for The Edge Exhibition where the chair was available for conference attendees to experiment with the effect of sound on various areas of the physical body.  Additionally, a brainwave interface system was used to monitor brainwave frequencies, amplitudes, and coherence to analyze the brain’s responses to the music’s frequencies interacting with the body.