Several years in the past, Georgia Institute of Technology researchers created a technology-enhanced glove that can teach newbies the best way to play piano melodies in 45 minutes. Now they’ve superior the identical wearable computing know-how to assist folks learn to learn and write Braille. The twist is that individuals sporting the glove do not should pay attention. They be taught whereas doing one thing else.
“The process is based on passive haptic learning (PHL),” mentioned Thad Starner, a Georgia Tech professor and wearable pc pioneer. “We’ve learned that people can acquire motor skills through vibrations without devoting active attention to their hands.”
In their new examine, Starner and Ph.D. pupil Caitlyn Seim examined how nicely these gloves work to teach Braille. Each examine participant wore a pair of gloves with tiny vibrating motors stitched into the knuckles. The motors vibrated in a sequence that corresponded with the typing sample of a pre-determined phrase in Braille. Audio cues let the customers know the Braille letters produced by typing that sequence. Afterwards, everybody tried to sort the phrase one time, with out the cues or vibrations, on a keyboard.
The sequences have been then repeated throughout a distraction process. Participants performed a sport for 30 minutes and have been advised to disregard the gloves. Half of the individuals felt repeated vibrations and heard the cues; the others solely heard the audio cues. When the sport was over, individuals tried to sort the phrase with out sporting the gloves.
“Those in the control group did about the same on their second attempt (as they did in their pre-study baseline test),” mentioned Starner. “But participants who felt the vibrations during the game were a third more accurate. Some were even perfect.”
The researchers anticipated to see a large disparity between the 2 teams primarily based on their profitable outcomes whereas utilizing the piano glove. But they have been stunned the passive learners picked up an extra ability.