Students at a University of Rochester computer science class have developed a free app that's designed to help their classmates who are learning how to sing at the Eastman School of Music.
Professor of Voice at Eastman, Katherine Ciesinski, says vowel shaping is an important component in classical singing, and a new computer app is helping students learn how to sing their vowels.
She says the teacher provides a model sound, which appears as both a color and an oval shape on the computer screen.
The student then tries to match that sound, and when it matches the sound of the teacher's vowel, it changes color of the oval to green.
Ciesinski says this application is something that can move teaching forward.
She says another advantage is the app is hands-free, and students could even have it on their phone and use it in a practice space.
The app was developed by students in Ehsan Hoque's Human-Computer Interaction computer science class.
He says it's important students consider people first when computing to solve real-life problems.
Here's a University of Rochester produced video of the app in use by Professor Ciesinski and students.