The LIKA team developed a wearable sensor device that can measure muscle signals from violinists

The world’s first OpenStack Application Hackathon, themed with the future city, was held in Taiwan from March 18 to 20. Among the competition of nearly 50 teams with 300 experts participating, ITRI’s LIKA team won the Grand Prize and Best Design Award for a wearable sensor device that measures muscle signals of violinists. The team will participate in 2016 OpenStack Summit in Austin, Texas in April, demonstrating Taiwan’s R&D capability to the world’s top software developers. 

Taiwan OpenStack Application Hackathon, held in Taiwan from March 18 to 20.

"Innovation is an essential part of Taiwan’s industrial transformation.” said Dr. Shiaw-Shian Yu, the General Director of ITRI’S Service Systems Technology Center. Yu noted that the award-winning muscle signal-detection technology was originally used in the medical sector and the LIKA adapted it to fit the needs of music learning. With the rise of big data and cloud computing, more innovative applications will emerge, and ITRI will continue to play a leading role in promoting innovation.

Szu-Han Tzao played the violin with the wearable sensor device.

ITRI’s LIKA team consisted of four staff members from ITRI’s Service Systems Technology Center: Szu-Han Tzao, Chi-Kang Wu, Zhong-Wei Liao and Jian-Hong Liu. The winning idea came from the violin placed in Tzao’s car, which inspired them to create a device that could measure the muscle signals of violinists as they play. Over 40 hours during the competition, they completed the android system development, data computing and the design for wearable sensors, showing their stamina and willpower.

The wearable sensor developed by the LIKA team uses the Mechanomyogram (MMG) detection technology in an attempt to capture the vibration signals emitted by muscles and record subtle arm/finger movements. With the data computing from the OpenStack cloud platform, instant analysis could be tracked in terms of the dynamics of finger pressure and the speed of playing the strings. In the future, it is able to gather and analyze data from the muscle movements of virtuoso players; therefore, offering a more efficient and precise learning method. The data collected could also be shared on social media and be used for online learning.
Given MMG’s potential to translate body signal to data collection, it is applicable to other fields besides music. For instance, techniques in ramen making or dough kneading, wher such artisanal skills could be transferable to learners via a more scientific and systematic method.

 
about OpenStack Application Hackathon
The OpenStack Application Hackathon is a marathon competition wher contestants must use the OpenStack platform to quickly develop cloud applications and services in two consecutive days.