PianoKeystroke-EMG: Piano hand muscle electromyography estimation from easily accessible piano keystroke

Author

Liu, Ruofan and Peng, Yichen and Oku, Takanori and Wu, Erwin and Furuya, Shinichi and Koike, Hideki

Abstract

The acquisition of motor skills is intrinsically related to human movement dynamics. Traditional methods for measuring muscle activation via electromyography (EMG) sensors are often prohibitively expensive. Previous approaches developed algorithms to infer muscular information from other modalities, though predominantly concentrating on gross motor activities. In contrast, dexterous skills, such as piano performance, mostly engage small muscles, for which reliable and cost-effective solutions remain underexplored. We introduce PianoKeystroke-EMG, an approach to estimate EMG data from readily accessible data, such as piano keystroke motions. Further evaluation demonstrates that our system outperforms baselines in accuracy and versatility, potentially offering a practical tool for pianists to enhance their performance techniques.