Arthur Carabott: Industrial Design Studentship 2015
Case Studies
Posted: 12/01/2021
The Musician’s Mirror: an objective observer for posture and technique
Industrial Design Student 2015
Arthur Carabott Royal College of Art / Imperial College London Global Innovation Design
The Musician’s Mirror is a tool to help musicians correct bad habits
in their technique, posture and form. A computer vision based system, it
allows the musician to track any part of their body and be given
feedback when they fall into bad habits. The musician or their teacher
can apply labels for good and bad positions, e.g. hunched shoulders or a
slouched back would be labelled as positions to avoid.
The system provides real-time “thinking fast” audio feedback whenever
the musician falls into a bad habit. For acoustic instruments this is
white noise, while for electric instruments the system can distort the
sound of the instrument itself. Non real-time “thinking slow” feedback
is provided in the form of a visual heatmap that summarises hours of
practising, showing the positions the musician spent the most time in.