We reduced the input to a 3-dimensional vector for pitch, duration and volume. This is an oversimplification of our perception. One direction for future work is to explore the lower-level sound wave perception with the correct level of complexity. We would understand how the many harmonics of an instrument enriches our perception of music.
Our project expressed a language of attention for audition, within the limits of music perception, given one instrument. With a more accurate model for lower-level auditory perception, we can extend this language to all of the auditory world. We could understand how we perceive several instruments coherently together, or how we can select one instrument, one conversation among others, or one pattern of sounds in the middle of nature.
Visual and Auditory Routines are nothing else but elements of our implicit memory. With this insight, we can explore how implicit memory relates to explicit memory and understand how it all works in the brain.
When we first learn how to play an instrument, we must pay very close attention to the movement of our fingers. But once the learning is done, we can play the piece like a routine, without even paying attention to what our fingers are doing, and focus on something else, for example a conversation with a friend. How does attention move horizontally between senses? How does attention move vertically between levels of processing, when it can follow every movement of the fingers or follow the global flow of a routine? Furthermore, how do we distribute attention, in other words pay attention to several things at the same time?
Having a unified model for auditory and visual perception can help us understand the functions of the neural structure of the human brain. How is attention implemented in our brain?
If we can put attention at the center of all our perception, will that explain the notion of consciousness and self-awareness?
What is beautiful about music? How can music affect our mood, make us sad, happy, angry, energetic, or even empowered or enraged? Music has the potential to create a strong emotional response in people, sometimes pushing it to an extreme. For example, Muslims give to some forms of music the same forbidden status as alcohol or gambling, because such music is believed to alienate people. If our model shows how we perceive music, then by studying what patterns of music perception affect our emotional state, we might get insights about how emotions work.