Trainer Technology
Craig Lewiston
MIT Media Lab
Hyperinstruments Group
Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
The ability to execute a sequence of timed motor movements is fundamental to many human activities. Writing, speaking, music, and sports all require the ability to coordinate and execute a sequence of movements at specific moments in time.
We have developed a technology for facilitating sensorimotor learning through haptic guidance. Trainer Technology works by employing active magnetic force to guide finger movements during sensorimotor learning that involves sequential key presses, such as typing or playing the piano. By combining this haptic guidance with an audiovisual learning paradigm, we have created a core technology with possible applications to fields such as musical training, physical rehabilitation, and scientific investigation of sensorimotor learning.
The Trainer Piano is a player piano with magnets embedded into the keys. The user wears gloves with magnets in the fingertips, and "feels" the song being played as they are learning.
Trainer Piano (4/1/08)
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Trainer Piano (10/4/07)
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The Trainer Prototype is a five-key electromagnetic keyboard designed for a stationary right hand. Pilot studies have examined how our device facilitates the learning of ordinal and temporal properties of a rhythmic sequence. Initial pilot data indicates that this form of haptic guidance is more effective at teaching musically-naive subjects to perform a new rhythmic sequence, when compared with audio-only learning.
Trainer Prototype.v3 (4/1/08)
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Trainer Prototype.v2 (5/6/07)
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Trainer Prototype.v1 (10/16/06)
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