A Wearable Technology For Wind Musicians: Does It Matter How You Breathe?

This paper presents an affordable and accessible wearable technology for wind musicians which provides real-time biofeedback on their breathing. We developed the abdominal thoracic expansion measurement prototype wearable technology (ATEM-P), to measure a wind musician's breathing-induced expansion and contraction while they are playing. Our first study validates the ATEM-P with the gold standard of medical grade respiratory exertion measurement devices, the respiratory plethysmography inductance system (RIP). The results show that the ATEM-P has a strong correlation to the RIP system. Our second study provides quantitative and qualitative data about the correlation between a musician's breathing technique and the quality of their performance. We expected the results to show a correlation between the ATEM-P peak amplitudes and the quality of performance, i.e. better breathing-induced expansion leads to better quality of performance, however this was not the case. The results did show that there is a correlation between a musician's quality of performance and breath period. Results from the studies show that the ATEM-P has potential as an affordable and accessible wearable technology for wind musicians: a performance enhancement tool and an educational tool.