Designing Assistive Devices to Hit the High Notes (VIDEO)
Caption
From the moment he first picked up the French horn, Jacob Factor has battled through pain. The PhD student in music education at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music has a rare throat condition called pharyngoceles, which causes the walls of his throat to bulge with pockets of air, resulting in extreme discomfort, particularly when he needs higher internal pressure to hit high notes or play at louder volumes. “It feels like getting stabbed in the throat,” says Factor, who has had the condition since birth. “My neck would be throbbing if I had a hard playing week, and I would have to put down the instrument for a day.” Despite years of muddled advice from perplexed instructors, Factor continued to adapt and persevere, pursuing graduate studies at one of the world’s top music schools. When he arrived at Eastman, he was able to tap into URochester’s wider network of expertise and search for a way to ease the discomfort. What he found was a team of otolaryngologists, biomedical engineers, and audio engineers who designed and tested an assistive brace that has him playing stronger, at higher ranges, and more confidently than ever before.
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URochester video
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