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Mobile Music Touch is a novel treatment for people who have lost sensation in their hands from a spinal cord injury. Not only does it have therapeutic benefits, but it also teaches people to play the piano in the process.

Developed by Tanya Markow at Georgia Tech, the MMT is a device consisting of a glove, control box and five small vibrating motors. These have two functions. Firstly, it vibrates continuously and helps restore feeling and mobility to people suffering from spinal cord injuries. Previous studies have shown that vibrations can have a restorative effect, and a recent study with the MMT supports these results. Unlike other therapeutic devices, the MMT is small enough to be worn comfortably for extended periods of time.

However, the MMT has a second trick — it teaches music. As music is played, a light-up keyboard indicates the correct key and the MMT vibrates the corresponding finger.

A recent study, focused not on piano playing but on frequent wear of the MMT alone, had promising results. “Some people were able to pick up objects more easily,” Markow told Georgia Tech. “Another said he could immediately feel the heat from a cup of coffee, rather than after a delay.”

The musical component of the MMT is important, though. For one thing, the researchers found that users who learned songs with the MMT learned them faster. It also gives users more of an incentive to use the device, and a goal to work towards.

“Equipment used for hand rehabilitation may seem monotonous and boring to some, and doesn’t provide any feedback or incentive, […] Mobile Music Touch overcomes each of those challenges and provides surprising benefits for people with weakness and sensory loss due to SCI,” said Thad Starner, of Georgia Tech’s Contextual Computing Group. “It’s a great example of how wearable computing can change people’s lives.”

While extremely promising, Markow and her colleagues are looking forward to further research using the MMT — expanding it to include MRI studies to observe the effects on patients more directly.

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This article originally published at Geekosystem
here

Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/07/18/mobile-music-touch/