Kumamoto University Academic Develops System Enabling Disabled People to Play Guitar with 1 Hand and Foot

From The Mainichi

November 29 2023

KUMAMOTO – A university professor has developed a system to assist people with physical disabilities to play the guitar using one arm and a foot.

Go Koutaki, 43, an information engineering professor at Kumamoto University’s Faculty of Engineering, is developing systems that help people with disabilities, such as partial paralysis or impairment of one arm, to play musical instruments. For example, the “semi-automatic guitar performance support device” replaces the action of holding down chords with one’s fingers by using a foot to tap pedals linked by radio waves. Using only a foot and a hand, the guitar produces the sound the musician envisions.

In mid-October in Tokyo, Koutaki participated in an event where developers presented the results of their unique ideas at their respective booths. A man who had lost his left arm in an accident visited Koutaki’s booth and played a guitar with the device attached. The man, who had originally enjoyed playing the guitar, said that he had tried to develop a device that would allow him to play with only his right arm but had given up. He looked moved by Koutaki’s invention, saying, “I’m able to play for the first time in a year.” Later, he apparently visited the booth many times with his friends.

Koutaki sticks to the concept of people enjoying the pleasure of playing, instead of making the system fully automatic, and listeners can feel the live sound. He has also been developing systems to help musicians hold down saxophone keys and assist them to play the flute.

Originally, Koutaki specialized in image processing in the information engineering field. Wanting to make his research useful to people, he became interested in “human-computer interaction,” a field that uses machines to improve people’s lives, and began working with students in his laboratory to develop robots about three years ago.

Among other things, Koutaki decided to use technology in music, which he himself loves, to help people regardless of language or age. After a year and a half in the lab, he developed the current system.

Koutaki’s wish is that his research will boost people’s joy in being able to do what they couldn’t do before. He said, “I hope to realize a society where people’s lives are enriched through the development of robots.”

The results of his research can be seen on his lab’s YouTube channel