Smart Piano
In this project, we designed and prototyped an electromechanical piano that intuitively teaches children visual memory recognition and music theory. It works by lighting up keys for the user to play, and as the patterns of lit up keys become more complex based on accuracy of performance, the child will become more familiar with how these patterns create chords and scales.
Below you will find a video showing how our product works as well as technical and process documentation.
Technical and Process Documentation for Smart Piano
We began the design process by brainstorming how we would design the keys and how they would trigger a signal when pressed. We thought about a button and spring system that would rebound the key when pressed, but ultimately decided on using lever switches which worked very well with what we were trying to accomplish. We also played around with how we would nestle an LED in the key so that it would light up when pressed.
We then worked on some detailed drawings and initial CAD models for the keys, which proved to be too complex, and a similar design ended up working better. To the right picture of some early drawings that helped us refine our final design:
We decided that we would make our piano with 5 notes, including 3 white and 2 black keys, ranging from C to E. We were limited in scope with the capabilities and number of pin connections the arduino had as each key had a lever switch and LED associated with it.
As we continued to design the keys we ran into some issues. We didn’t want to make the black keys black because we still wanted for light to be able to shine through. We also thought it would be too complicated for the scope of this project to elevate the black keys due to wiring. Shaping the white keys around the black keys also proved to be complicated if we weren’t going to elevate the black keys. As a result, we decided to make each key the same width, and on the same plane, all 3D printed in white. We made the black keys shorter to help differentiate them, and we also labeled the keys and simplified the overall design. Below are drawings and pictures of the keys we 3D printed.
To hold the keys and switches we had originally planned on using a 3D printed bracket to space and house them. Due to issues with the print not processing, we decided to manually mill the bracket using tooling board.
The lever switches were then glued into the spaces and the channels allowed for travel of the key side panels.
With the levers and keys positioned and assembled, electronic prototyping began for the Arduino (to the right).
We decided to laser cut a box to house the ends of the keys and the arduino/wiring. We decided to make this out of cardboard for easy assembly. The cardboard ended up being very sturdy. By cutting the surface with an exacto knife, we were able to fold the cardboard, allowing us to laser cut a “T” shape that we could fold into a box.
We later hot glued the box together when assembling the piano.
Assembly and Final Product:
Once we had everything built we were able to easily put it together and assemble the piano and wiring with the box. We cut a hole out of the side of the box to allow for the chord supplying power from the computer to the arduino and we were finished!
