/ News
Hand holding: the electronic glove that can teach anyone how to play the piano
A hi-tech glove that can tell people exactly how to play songs on a piano could dramatically improve treatments for people with motor difficulties.
Georgia Tech researchers say their musical glove can improve sensation and motor skills for people with paralyzing spinal cord injuries.
The gadget has already had a major impact in trials with individuals with limited feeling or movement in their hands due to tetraplegia.
The glove is called Mobile Music Touch (MMT), and is used with a piano keyboard.
The glove vibrates a person's fingers to tell them which keys to play.
These researchers tested the glove with individuals who had sustained their injury more than a year before the study, and was primarily used while the participants were going about their daily routines.
The eight-week experiment required participants to practice playing the piano for 30 minutes, three times a week.
Half used the MMT glove to practice; half did not.
While learning to play the instrument, several people with SCI experienced improved sensation in their fingers.
'After our preliminary work in 2011, we suspected that the glove would have positive results for people with SCI,' said Ph.D. graduate Tanya Markow, the project's leader.
'But we were surprised by how much improvement they made in our study.
'For example, after using the glove, some participants were able to feel the texture of their bed sheets and clothes for the first time since their injury.'
The glove works with a computer, MP3 player or smart phone.
A song, such as Ode to Joy, is programmed into a device, which is wirelessly linked to the glove.
As the musical notes are illuminated on the correct keys on the piano keyboard, the control box on the back of the glove sends vibrations to "tap" the corresponding fingers.
The participants play along, gradually memorizing the keys and learning additional songs.
The participants also wore the glove at home for two hours a day, five days a week, feeling only the vibration (and not playing the piano).
Previous studies showed that wearing the MMT system passively in this manner helped participants learn songs faster and retain them better.
The researchers hoped that the passive wearing of the device would also have rehabilitative effects.
At the end of the study, participants performed a variety of common grasping and sensation tests to measure their improvement.
Those who used the glove performed significantly better than those who just learned the piano normally.
'Some people were able to pick up objects more easily,' said Markow. 'Another said he could immediately feel the heat from a cup of coffee, rather than after a delay.'
The team now hope to expand the study to include functional MRI results to see exactly what the effect of the glove is.
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Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2175236/Hand-holding-electronic-glove-teach-play-piano.html
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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