Haptic Assisted Motor Learning for Novice Dancers

Do you often confuse your left foot with your right while learning a new dance step? Or lose count of the beats? Or wonder how exactly the trainer is putting their weight onto their feet? One winter semester, while taking a beginner’s class in salsa, I noticed these issues in novice dancers and thought whether these problems can be solved with a pair of smart shoes.

Learning a new motor skill typically requires repeated physical training, cognitive training, and retention. When learning a particular form of dance, it is critical to have a precise idea of rhythm, spatial movement, and body posture during the performance. Often these factors emerge while practicing movements intermittently. However, in the process of traditional dance learning in a classroom, it is difficult for novice dancers to follow the specifics of rhythm, spatial movement and body posture, while in sync with the instructor, at a defined pace. The situation becomes more difficult in large class sizes.

We propose a haptic footwear-based system to assist novice dancers with the motor learning procedure. It is an ongoing project and involves designing haptic cues for conveying changes in weight transfer, rhythm and direction of movement. We are working with force sensors (FSR), inertial motion sensors (IMU) and actuators.

If you want to know more about the project read my thesis. Want to collaborate, check Shared Reality Lab Page.