Hand injuries from repetitive high-strain and physical overload can hamper or
even end a musician's career. To help musicians develop safer playing habits,
we developed a multiplecontact force-sensing array that can substitute as a
guitar fretboard. The system consists of 72 individual force sensing modules,
each containing a flexure and a photointerrupter that measures the
corresponding deflection when forces are applied. The system is capable of
measuring forces between 0-25 N applied anywhere within the first 12 frets at a
rate of 20 Hz with an average accuracy of 0.4 N and a resolution of 0.1 N.
Accompanied with a GUI, the resulting prototype was received positively as a
useful tool for learning and injury prevention by novice and expert musicians.Comment: IEEE Sensor Conference, 201