The HAptics GUidance System (HAGUS) is a device that Graham C. Grindlay, a first-year PhD student in the Electrical Engineering department at Columbia University, built as part of his master’s thesis at the MIT Media Lab.

While the motivation for the project grew out of the FielDrum (see image), HAGUS was designed and built for a set of experiments looking at what effect physical guidance has on motor learning in a musical context. The basic idea of the device and Grindlay’s thesis project is to be able to “record” and playback” drumstick motions involved in percussion performance.

Motions of expert (or at least competent) players are recorded and then used to train novice players by guiding them through correct drumstick motions using the device’s playback feature. Grindlay conducted a study using 40 participants with no prior percussion experience to see if this type of training paradigm is effective for teaching percussion. Does it work? Read his thesis, IEEE Haptics Symposium paper, or see his old MIT webpage for details, but the short answer is yes. The slightly longer answer is that, in terms of timing accuracy, there was a small but statistically significant (positive) difference between subjects who received guidanance during training versus those who did not. In terms of velocity (loudness) accuracy, there was a highly significant difference, with guided subjects incurring roughly 18% less error. See this.

Thanks to Cati Vaucelle and her architectradure.blogspot.