Pianists fitted with a robotic THUMB can adjust to playing in an hour

Pianists who have been fitted with a third robotic thumb are able to adjust their playing style to suit their new 11 digits in just an hour, according to researchers. To determine how well human motor control capabilities cope with augmented limbs, a team from Imperial College London strapped a robot thumb to a pianist. The'third thumb' is strapped to a user's hand next to the little finger and controlled by electrical signals generated when the pianist moves their foot. To test how useful this extra limb is, the team, led by Aldo Faisal, recruited six experienced pianists and six people who didn't play the piano. They found that the volunteer pianists were able to learn to play the piano with 11 digits rather than 10 within an hour of being shown how to use the extra thumb regardless of their experience with the piano itself.