cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

orchestra member

seabrook2017
Honored Guest
I'm a musician with diminishing eyesight. Has anyone tried using Oculus Rift for  seeing the music and also the conductor while playing an instrument? -- Dick S.
2 REPLIES 2

Calmfixup
Heroic Explorer
That's quite an interesting idea...I've not heard of anything like it so far, but I'd hazard a guess that AR and not VR is the technology for this. Something like a Hololens would be great if you could project musical notes directly on the display and never have to look down to your sheet music.


GATOxVoS
Heroic Explorer
I've participated in community orchestras since I was young, and as a Rift user and (former) violinist, as of right now I do not believe the Oculus Rift has the clarity required to read traditional sheet music, especially if trying to read more complex pieces that have many small symbols and notes that are close together in fast passages.

But as @Calmfixup said, if there was a way to read notes in a different manner than the traditional way, it could be used. I would love to test any program that does this. Eventually, the technology will improve to the point where we can read sheet music clearly, but sadly, it's just not there yet 😞

Edit: Just tried playing a little with the Rift headset on. On second thought, if the music was formatted correctly, and if you had a video feed to the conductor, there could be the possibility of doing this. The main concern though (for shoulder instruments) is that your head is not completely straight on the horizontal axis (for me, as I place my head on my chin rest, the floor is what is in my field of vision).
Of course, this is just a hypothetical for this to work, and all dependent upon someone creating the program to show sheet music and a video feed of the conductor. You would also have to setup the Rift headset on stage during performances which would be cumbersome. Perhaps a GearVR would be better for this application, since positional tracking isn't really needed. 
PC Specs:
Intel i7-6700k @ 4.5 Ghz
Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming 3 Motherboard
RTX 2080 Ti - MSI VENTUS
16 GB CAS-10 RAM @ 2400 MHz
Startech 4-port/4-USB controller add-on card
850W Corsair HX850 PSU
4-Sensor, Roomscale Setup