If you know how to type at any speed you probably understand the concept of “muscle memory”. Your hands “know” where all the keys are, but you may not consciously be able to say where they are. The same basic thing applies to dancers and musicians. They know how to move or how to play without thinking about it. Their muscles have memorized the tasks and a guitar player, for example, can strike a chord without thinking about where they need to place their fingers.
Understanding muscle memory is necessary to understand the idea behind the Mobile Music Touch. The glove is designed to passively instill muscle memory, even while you are performing other tasks. According to Georgia Tech professor Thad Starner it can allow anyone to quickly “master” piano, guitar, Braille or even dance steps at incredible speeds.
This might sound, at first blush, like the type of absurd thing you see infomercials for on late night TV but that is not the case.
Starner is a technical lead on Google Glass. He has an incredible 20 years of experience with wearable computers and is involved, according to Techcrunch with “AI and techniques in human computer interaction (HCI) using wearable tech.”
“Have you ever seen the Matrix?” Thad Starner excitedly asks me over the phone. “There’s that scene where they need to fly a helicopter and Trinity just says, “hang on” and then uploads the instructions to her brain. That’s the future of what I’m doing.”
The glove has even allowed, to an extent, feeling and muscle control to return to people suffering from paralysis.
No word yet on when you’ll be able to buy one but, if this technology works, Guitar Hero’s days are numbered.