Mobile Music Touch

The loss of functionality of the hands can severely interrupt a person’s life, and hand rehabilitation can be a long, arduous process. Many patients find certain traditional therapy exercises, monotonous and un-motivating. The Mobile Music Touch (MMT) system is designed to provide an engaging, pervasive hand rehabilitation aid. MMT consists of a wireless tactile glove, with a vibration motor for each finger, and a lightweight computing device such as a laptop, an MP3 player or a smart phone. When instrumental music is played the tactile glove vibrates to indicate which fingers play which notes. Thus with MMT, users can hear a song and feel it playing on their hands. The MMT system can augment the stimulation of the sensory nerves, motivate patients to use their hands in an engaging manner, and teach them the enjoyable and relaxing skill of playing an instrument, which may further motivate long term hand use. MMT can also be used to assist in musical instrument practice by offering passive stimulus-based training for busy learners who cannot spend much time with the instrument itself. A pilot study have shown that learners who received song driven vibration stimuli, were able to learn new songs faster and more accurately.