Joseph A. Paradiso, Stacy J. Morris, Ari Y. Benbasat, Erik Asmussen

Abstract

Musical feedback can aid in learning to move properly, for example in physical therapy, sports medicine, or training. By appropriately instrumenting the body to detect the correct motion (or the motion to be avoided), and mapping its characteristics causally onto an interactive musical stream, a patient can, in certain cases, be discouraged from making the incorrect motion and encouraged to move properly. We describe a heavily instrumented pair of shoes that were developed to function as a wearable gait laboratory, and overview some of the initial work performed using these shoes for real-time interactive therapy based exploiting musical feedback.