STRAPPING a robotic percussionist to your arm could make you an ace drummer.
As the movements a drummer makes are hard to describe, music tutors often resort to guiding a student鈥檚 hand. So Graham Grindlay, until recently at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, developed a drumstick-wielding robotic arm.
A skilled drummer first trains the motorised arm brace by strapping it on and playing a rhythm pattern. When a novice wears the arm, it 鈥減lays back鈥� the beats, allowing the user to feel the pattern鈥檚 tempo and the variation in stick pressure. Users can also take advantage of the arm to learn without a teacher being present.
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In tests on 32 people who had never played drums, those who used the brace were 18 per cent more accurate than non-users.
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