Have you ever been so good at something that no amount of further training will garner better results? That’s known as the ‘ceiling effect’ and could soon be a thing of the past – specifically for pianists and only if this robotic exoskeletal hand becomes more than a science experiment.
Giving pianists a robotic exoskeletal hand
A team of roboticists at Sony Computer Science Laboratories Inc. and the NeuroPiano Institute in Kyoto, Japan published a study last month in Science Robotics after they fitted a robotic exoskeletal hand to the finger-bearing flesh pads of 118 trained pianists.
“For trained individuals such as athletes and musicians, learning often plateaus after extensive training, known as the “ceiling effect.” One bottleneck to overcome it is having no prior physical experience with the skill to be learned.”
They set out to discover if the ‘ceiling effect’ could be overcome by “exposing expert pianists to fast and complex finger movements that cannot be performed voluntarily.” That’s where the robotic exoskeletal hand comes in, if you know what we mean.
The mechanical aide straps to the top of a hand and uses small motors to control the fingers individually, allowing them to move faster than they could before.
Read More: Outdoor clothing brand Arc’teryx debuts the Mo/Go, a commercial exoskeleton add-on for hikers
Before the study, the volunteer pianists practised pieces until they hit their plateau. Then they spent some time wearing the robotic exoskeleton on just their right hand while it ‘passively trained’ their fingers with different patterns and varying speeds.
The volunteers then removed the robotic exoskeletal hand and played the same pieces they had practised before.
The research teams found that not only did the passive training result in an improved overall performance from the pianists but that it also had affected the left hand too, which didn’t get any time alone with the exoskeleton.
