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Proper Posture: Designing Posture Feedback Across Musical Instruments

Bettina Eska, Jasmin Niess, Florian Müller
2022
arXiv
PDF DOI arXiv
TL;DR
What we did: We designed a haptic feedback system to support musicians in maintaining proper hand posture while playing musical instruments, using vibrotactile and thermal cues.
What we found: We found that our proposed system can effectively detect incorrect posture and provide subtle feedback to guide musicians back to the correct position without distracting them from their performance.
Takeaway: Our research contributes to the development of ergonomic practices in music education, potentially preventing injuries and improving performance efficiency for both beginners and advanced musicians.

Abstract

There is a recommended body posture and hand position for playing every musical instrument, allowing efficient and quick movements without blockage. Due to humans’ limited cognitive capabilities, they struggle to concentrate on several things simultaneously and thus sometimes lose the correct position while playing their instrument. Incorrect positions when playing an instrument can lead to injuries and movement disorders in the long run. Previous work in HCI mainly focused on developing systems to assist in learning an instrument. However, the design space for posture correction when playing a musical instrument has not yet been explored. In this position paper, we present our vision of providing subtle vibrotactile or thermal feedback to guide the focus of attention back to the correct posture when playing a musical instrument. We discuss our concept with a focus on motion recognition and feedback modalities. Finally, we outline the next steps for future research.