Abstract:

Finger force, acceleration and position are fundamental in playing music instruments. Measuring these parameters is a technical challenge and precise position and acceleration measurement of single fingers is particularly demanding. We present a sensor setup for multi modal measurements of force, position and acceleration in piano playing. We capture outputs from the upper extremity contributing to the total force output seen at the fingers. To precisely characterize fingers' positions and acceleration we use wearable sensors. A 6-axes (3-force and 3-torque axes) force sensor precisely captures contributions from hand, wrist and arm. A finger's acceleration sensor and a MIDI grand piano complete the measuring setup. The acceleration and position sensor is fixed to the dorsal aspect of the last finger phalanx. The 6-axes sensor is adjustable to fit individual hand positions and constitutes a basis setup that can be easily expanded to account for diverse measurement needs. An existing software tool was adapted to visualize the sensor data and to synchronize it to the MIDI out. With this basis setup we seek to estimate the isolated force output of finger effectors and to show coherences of finger position, force and attack. To proof the setup, a few pilot measurements were carried out.