Piano Glove

What it is:

The Piano Glove is a wearable instrument that uses touch and rotation to create digital sounds. It has four buttons in the form of capacitive touch sensors, that each play a different note when pressed. Rotating the glove either left or right, changes the notes that are played by the buttons. It has the capability of playing 8 notes in total; the entirety of the C Major scale. The notes are C-D-E-F when the glove is rotated to the left, and G-A-B-C when rotated to the right.

How it was made:

I started by setting up the initial connection to some coins with alligator clips. The coins would act as the medium for the touch sensors. Then I took a fingerless glove and played around with how I would place the coins on the palm, and the CPX on the back.

After some testing, I cut out a sheet of plastic to act as the back board of the touch sensors, to keep them sturdy and in place. I also discovered that dimes would be the ideal coins to use due to their size. I cut the alligator clips open so that I could attach the wires flush to the back of the dimes, secured them to the plastic plate with a combination of electrical and duck tape

From that point, the plate was ready to be attached to the glove using some more tape. To keep the wires tidy, I routed them through a hair tie around the wrist of the glove, then attached the CPX to the back of the glove using the same hair tie which completed the build.

How it works:

The glove utilizes the accelerometer of the Circuit Playground Express to determine the orientation of the glove and change the output tones of each capacitive touch sensor accordingly.

Demonstration: