Prof Martin Birchall's team and the Royal Opera House collaborate on unique project

Led by Ear Institute's researcher Professor Martin Birchall, a specialist in voice disorders, and his Robovox team the project aims to explore the intrinsic value of the human voice, what a voice is and what happens when a voice is gone.

Their work focuses on soft robotics to restore the function of voice, breathing and swallowing. And their project, funded by Wellcome, is to produce an implant to record muscle responses to control an artificial larynx (for laryngectomy patients).

In their description of the show, the Royal Opera House describe the installation as a “radically different kind of opera experience”.

Professor Birchall said: “This project came about as a result of a collaboration between my Wellcome-funded robotics project and a group of composers and artists. Following work with a group of patients who had lost their voice for one reason or another they produced a staggering piece of art, which is both a performance and an installation.”

Professor Birchall and the Robovox team are now doing further work with Sound Voice on dysphagia (difficulties in eating) and the challenges of making robots work with humans.

To find out more and to book tickets for The Sound Voice Project please click here.

Media

• UCL news page here
• The Guardian website

Links

• Professor Martin Birchall's academic profile
• UCL Ear Institute
• UCL Brain Sciences
• Robovox
• The Royal Opera House
• Sound Voice Project

Image

credit: Royal Opera House