Would-be Liberaces could soon be wearing a keyboard on their hands in the form of the Piano Gloves. Created by Scott Garner, the prototype gloves let the wearer play a piano on any surface via buttons on the tips of the fingers. Audio is processed via an Arduino microcontroller wired to the buttons and presently the software can be set to play a major scale or ten semitones, which would limit the gloves to playing tunes comprised of ten or less notes, but Scott is looking at ways to expand the repertoire.
The project is still in the early stages of development, but Scott has some ideas of ways to widen the range of notes available. A couple of possibilities include using the thumb as a kind of shift key for producing sharps and flats, or using two fingers to take the notes up or down an octave or change the instrument. He would also like to replace the buttons on the tips of the fingers with more expensive pressure pads, which would improve the feel of the gloves.
When Scott has refined his Piano Gloves, users might be able to combine them with the Concert Hands to be tinkling the virtual ivory like a virtuoso in no time wherever there is a flat surface available.
Via designboom.
Piano Gloves from Scott Garner on Vimeo.
