The audience鈥檚 anticipation rises as the maestro hunches over the piano. The first note echoes around the room, then PFFSZZZZZ! The audience hears a barrage of white noise.
Hunching is bad for the body, so a new system averts it in musicians by making it bad for their music too.
The Musician鈥檚 Mirror is the work of London-based designer . The software identifies when musicians鈥� posture is poor and gives them a stark, audible notification.
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鈥淢usicians always focus on how their instrument sounds, but it鈥檚 more difficult to focus on your posture. A wall of white noise quickly refocuses your attention,鈥� says at the Royal College of Music, London.
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To use the software, musicians input images of themselves adopting good and bad posture, then highlight the parts of the body they want the system to focus on.
鈥淕uitarists often have problems with their head and shoulder positioning, but piano players are more likely to slouch,鈥� says Carabott.
The musician then practises their instrument in front of a depth camera. At the first hint of bad posture, they receive an audible warning: white noise for an acoustic instrument, and for an electric one the system makes the notes sound out of tune. The worse the posture, the more jarring the response.
Once the practice session is over, the system issues a 鈥渉eat map鈥� 鈥� a single image representing the player鈥檚 most common postures.
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Carabott, a guitar player, has been testing the prototype system on himself and students at the Royal College of Music. On 7 February, Carabott demonstrated it at the 鈥榮 Science Alumni Evening.
According to a 2015 study, around 80 per cent of in the arm, neck or shoulder according to a study in 2015, but they are often slow to seek help.
鈥淢usicians don鈥檛 talk about injury the same way that athletes do,鈥� says Carabott. 鈥淭he injuries can build up over months or years, and are not reported until they start preventing someone from being able to play.鈥�
Many sports teams already film and analyse their players to forestall preventable injuries arising from poor posture. 鈥淢usicians should be able to have the same thing. They are the athletes of the small muscles,鈥� says Carabott.
