In a bid to overcome the “ceiling effect” — a phenomenon in which performance and skill improvements plateau after significant amounts of training — Shinichi Furuya of the NeuroPiano Institute developed a tool to help pianists who experience this frustrating effect.
He and colleagues built a motorised exoskeleton that fits over a pianist’s hand and moves their fingers automatically. This passive movement enables the musician to learn how to perform complex manoeuvres which may have been impossible to perform independently.
The custom-made robotic hand has a motor which applies force to the lower portion of each finger in order to extend it. For retraction, one of the skeleton’s accordion-like joints contracts. With this, the device can move a person’s finger up to four times every second, accommodating the sharp, quick strikes required for some advanced pieces of music.
When paired with a MIDI-enabled upright piano, custom scripts could allow the pianist to play and learn more complex music than they may have otherwise been able to.
The robotic hand was tested on 118 pianists, testing their motor skills before and after use of the device. Pianists were often able to perform technically challenging pieces with greater success; able to move their fingers more quickly than before, and hitting the appropriate keys with greater accuracy.
Interestingly, pianists often found that motor skills in their untrained hand also improved, which suggests the brain is learning through passive movement and benefiting the entire body.
There are clearly some really interesting applications here. The exoskeleton currently relies on an intact human hand to mould itself around, but what if the technology was developed so that a complete robotic hand could be given to an amputee, allowing them to control and play a keyboard instrument where before it would have been physically impossible.
The implications for solo training are also interesting, providing a tireless assistant which can help to improve the stamina, dexterity and ability of a pianist, possibly in faster time and with less human fatigue and potential injury.
