By SHOKO TAMAKI/ Staff Writer
March 18, 2025 at 18:22 JST
Many classical pianists practice tirelessly―even risking injury―to hone advanced techniques, only to reach an impassible skill plateau, but a robotic helper may offer a breakthrough to new heights.
Instead of traditional muscle training, this robot focuses on “sensory training” to help musicians exceed their perceived limits.
To improve their skills and prevent injuries from excessive practice, a team led by Shinichi Furuya at Sony Computer Science Laboratories Inc. developed a robotic training device.
The device fits over a person’s hand and fingers like a glove. Once programmed, the device moves the wearer’s fingers automatically―like a puppet―without the person consciously controlling them.
Instead of strengthening muscles, the device helps the body learn movements by reinforcing sensory input.
“I want to use science to improve the quality of practice, unlock hidden potential and bring musicians the joy of achieving what once seemed impossible,” said Furuya, a scientist who once aspired to be a professional pianist.
Furuya practiced 10 hours every day, but at 19, a right middle finger injury forced him to abandon his dream.
OVERCOMING 'CEILING EFFECT'
While conventional wisdom has long held that only relentless practice can lead to improvement, beyond a certain point hard work doesn’t always pay off.
Many highly trained musicians and athletes can find it difficult to improve further, no matter how much they practice.
This is known as the “ceiling effect.”
Moreover, focal dystonia, a condition in which part of the body no longer moves as intended, is believed to be caused by extensive repetition of delicate and highly precise movements over long periods.
To see if the device could help pianists overcome the ceiling effect, Furuya's team tested it on pianists who had started playing before age 8 and had accumulated more than 10,000 hours of practice by age 20.
First, 30 pianists practiced a complex sequence―bending the index and ring fingers, then the middle and little fingers―at high speed for two weeks.
As expected, their progress plateaued.
Then, the pianists wore the robotic device, which articulated their fingers through the same movement four times per second for 30 minutes.
As a result, their key-striking speed improved.
The team said that the training was effective for complex, high-speed movements that are difficult to master on one’s own.
However, the training showed little effect for simple fast movements or slow complex ones.
Furuya hopes to establish a training center where musicians can freely use these robots to enhance their practice.
TRAIN ONE HAND, IMPROVE BOTH
In a follow-up experiment, 60 pianists trained with the robotic device on one hand only.
Surprisingly, all participants improved their ability to perform complex, high-speed movements with their untrained hand as well.
This phenomenon, known as “transfer of learning,” happens when movements learned on one side of the body also influence the other side.
Researchers examined what changes occur in the brain during the robotic training.
After the training, researchers applied magnetic stimulation to the motor cortex―the area responsible for controlling finger movements―and observed that thepianists’ fingers repeated the complex motions they had just experienced.
This suggests that the motor cortex adapted, embedding the newly learned finger movements into the brain.
The team’s research was published in the U.S. scientific journal Science Robotics:https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.adn3802
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A robotic training device developed by Sony Computer Science Laboratories Inc. to enhance pianists’ complex and high-speed finger movements (Shoko Tamaki)
