%A Vamvakousis,Zacharias %A Ramirez,Rafael %D 2016 %J Frontiers in Psychology %C %F %G English %K gaze interaction,digital musical instrument,accessible interfaces,disabilities,music performance %Q %R 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00906 %W %L %M %P %7 %8 2016-June-21 %9 Technology Report %+ Zacharias Vamvakousis,Music Technology Group, Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra,Barcelona, Spain,zacharias.vamvakousis@upf.edu %# %! The EyeHarp: A Gaze-Controlled DigitalMusical Instrument %* %< %T The EyeHarp: A Gaze-Controlled Digital Musical Instrument %U https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00906 %V 7 %0 JOURNAL ARTICLE %@ 1664-1078 %X We present and evaluate the EyeHarp, a new gaze-controlled Digital Musical Instrument, which aims to enable people with severe motor disabilities to learn, perform, and compose music using only their gaze as control mechanism. It consists of (1) a step-sequencer layer, which serves for constructing chords/arpeggios, and (2) a melody layer, for playing melodies and changing the chords/arpeggios. We have conducted a pilot evaluation of the EyeHarp involving 39 participants with no disabilities from both a performer and an audience perspective. In the first case, eight people with normal vision and no motor disability participated in a music-playing session in which both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. In the second case 31 people qualitatively evaluated the EyeHarp in a concert setting consisting of two parts: a solo performance part, and an ensemble (EyeHarp, two guitars, and flute) performance part. The obtained results indicate that, similarly to traditional music instruments, the proposed digital musical instrument has a steep learning curve, and allows to produce expressive performances both from the performer and audience perspective.