Tod Machover is more than the godfather of Guitar Hero.
The inventor, composer and MIT professor created the technology behind the popular video game series, but for Machover, music is not just entertainment: It’s a tool with potential health applications ranging from diagnosing early Parkinson’s disease to retraining stroke victims to speak.
Machover’s new installation, called Vocal Vibrations, looks at relationships between the voice and human physiology. It opens at The Lab Cambridge in Boston in October. Machover spoke with writer Cory Ramey for Discover about research that’s just starting to tap music’s potential for improving health.
