Violinist quadriplegic uses brain waves to compose

                      A helmet with electrodes was the tool that allows the action



The last time Rosemary Johnson had composed music off at 23, in 1988. That year, a car accident interrupted the career of promising violinist, orchestra member of the Welsh National Opera. After seven months in a coma, Johnson woke up with a serious brain injury - could no longer speak or make any move with the body. Since that day, only played a few musical notes on the piano, with the help of her mother.

But British researchers gave her new hope. In a project that lasted more than 10 years, they developed a helmet full of electrodes able to read brain waves. With it, Johnson can choose, using only the mind, musical notes on a computer screen as a violinist while playing the song she composed.

It works like this: each musical note was represented on the screen in a different light. Then all she had to do was focus on the lights, the music sequence wanted, as the electrodes they captured the brainwaves. And the lights turned into notes, as a score. The intensity of mental focus I could even change the volume and speed of the song.

Johnson was not only to recover the chance to compose music. Three other hospital patients were also trained to use the technology. Together, they all have recorded a snippet of a new song. The first introduction to music live will take place in Plymouth, England, in late February.