MuscleTone: Listening to your muscles. An untethered, wearable EMG sonification system. 

Hear your form. good form is "in tune", bad form sounds dissonant. 

The MuscleTone system is a series of interconnected EMG sensors, tuned to the wearer's muscle activation, which feed via bluetooth to an app that amplifies and converts the signals into musical chords. If the wearer is practicing a specific and complex motion, involving several muscles, the EMG sensors will be placed on key muscles and calibrated to the "ideal" motion. Following this, the wearer will practice the motion. Improper form and motion will result in a dissonant chord, something that doesn't sound "correct." When the motion and form is correct, the wearer will hear a pleasing, resolved chord.

Instinctual Discoverability 

The MuscleTone system was designed to be as widely applicable as possible. The interface does not need to be taught, nor does it require mastery of any language, and by nature is broadly accessible by all hearing persons. It relies only on musical sound, which corresponds directly to muscle motion, and is inherently discoverable. The wearer quickly learns that one arm movement makes one sound, while another arm motion makes a different, nicer sound. By this process, we hope to significantly speed the learning time required to master an athletic task, re-learn a motion in physical therapy, or improve the effect of practice.

Collaborators

Dan Levine: Concept, electrical wiring and software engineering
Maggie George: Design, user research, electrical wiring assistance, implementation, documentation