A Therapeutic Robotic Hand Exoskeleton That Increases an Expert Pianist’s Speed and Dexterity

Researcher Shinichi Furuya and his team at Sony Computer Science Laboratories in Tokyo, discovered that a therapeutic robotic hand exoskeleton that helps people who have lost or have limited use of their hands, can also assist musicians and athletes with increasing their dexterity and skill level to an expert level after 30 minutes of training with the exoskeleton. This is particularly helpful to those who have reached a plateau in their training.

Sony CSL’s research team developed a training method using an exoskeleton robot that moves the five fingers independently and at high speed to experience complex, high-speed finger movements that humans cannot execute themselves. Training conducted after one hand was fitted with the robot revealed improvement in skills that had plateaued. Skill improvement also occurred in the other hand, which had not been trained.

This research is particularly helpful in learning how robotics can improve human capability.

This discovery suggests that, depending on practice quality, there is leeway to extend a skilled person’s skill limitations. These research findings are thus expected to be useful for creating new training programs and clarifying mechanisms of learning that are unique to skilled players and the function of the central nervous system behind such learning, as well as for developing practice methods that avoid excessive training and prevent disorders and injuries.

via New Scientist