Making Braille Music Universally Accessible
From: ICT Results - 01/21/2010)

A new European system uses digital technology to create a standardized format
for transcribing music into Braille and making musical scores for the blind
universally accessible. The CONTRAPUNCTAS system enables users to download
enriched, multimedia scores from a growing digital library, study them with
enhanced flexibility, and add new music to the library. CONTRAPUNCTAS uses a
new digital format to standardize musical scores and facilitates access by
using a software package called RESONARE. The resulting Braille Music Markup
Language can be read using another program, the Braille Music Reader (BMR).
BMR can describe musical elements from individual notes to changes in tempo
or dynamics in spoken form, says project coordinator Antonio Quatraro. BMR
plays the notes as the user reads the score on the computer. "That's
important, since a commercial recording cannot be as accurate as the printed
score, just as a spoken story cannot convey its spelling and punctuation,"
Quatraro says. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.physorg.com/news183310325.html
http://cordis.europa.eu/ictresults/index.cfm?section=news&tpl=article&BrowsingType=Features&ID=91118

Links:
CONTRAPUNCTAS
http://www.punctus.org/

CONTRAPUNCTUS fact sheet on CORDIS
http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=PROJ_IST&ACTION=D&DOC=246&CAT=PROJ&QUERY=0124b7c6e711:863c:2f5e105b&RCN=79472

Braille Music Markup Language
http://www.punctus.org/bmml/

Braille Music Reader
http://www.punctus.org/index.php?q=braille_music_reader_en