Sometimes you just don’t have space for a baby grand. [Abdullah] got around this problem and built a virtual wireless MIDI piano. Unlike it’s inspiration, it’s not bad but we still love it.
[Abdullah] got his hands on some flex sensors and attached them to a glove. These resistive sensors are put through a voltage divider and sent to a microcontroller (a PIC16F778, we believe) and corresponding MIDI notes are chosen. These MIDI notes are sent to a computer and played over a speaker.
Right now, only a single arpeggio is coded into the microcontroller. Depending on which finger is bent shifts this arpeggio up and down the keyboard. That being said, the firmware can be easily modified to recognize standard piano fingering so chords can be played. The only issue is moving the hand up and down the keyboard.
[Abdullah] is planning on making his glove completely wireless with a microcontroller and battery sewn into the glove. Here’s to hoping he’ll keep us posted.
Check out [Abdullah]’s demo after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z1sgXih6fw&w=470]
Looks like an alien hand in the picture haha.
Alien hand?? why? may be you do not have a hand!!!
^ silly! Aliens don’t have hands! Haven’t you seen enough hentai…
An accelerometer would fit in nicely.
Yeah, they have tentacles right? Wait, what show are we talking about here…
Hentai!!! what is that? you?
Couldn’t you solve the keyboard position problem by using two gloves and measuring the distance between them?
Sounds great, but what if you shift *both* hands up the keyboard? This would be undetectable. (Hence someone mentioning an accelerometer)
Kinect, Kontinuem sp.? These have something going for them. Playing is not preprogramed, it’s live! What I hear in the video is amazingly lame. Worse than one finger chords on an organ. At least I should hear a good taksim. Delays abound, it might make a better drunken driving simulator.
The flexing of fingers (adduction) won’t create any space information not even black or white key info, just events (five).
This project is not to replace the real piano!!
the real piano still has its magic. The goal from this project is to decode the virtual piano codes (i.e. what the MIDI devices send to computer to play on virtual piano) and use it in a wireless interface which can be used with the MIDI devices itself as accessories.
or to make wireless MIDI devices.