Miniature Light-Piano Plays Without Touching

Have you ever thought that playing the piano looks like fun, but actually pressing down on the keys to produce sound looks like too much work? If so, then this miniature yellow piano modeled after the one that Schroeder often plays on Peanuts might be just the thing for you.

The device is powered by a Raspberry Pi 2, and uses an array of 15 LEDs along with 15 LDRs to pick up when someone sticks a finger in between the sensing zone. The Pi runs the Pygame MIDI sequencer to produce sound, passing this to signal to a speaker setup also inside the piano.

The piano itself is made out of plywood, and painted a shade of yellow that would fit in well with the cartoon it’s modeled after. Six inches seems to be the sweet spot for separation between the LED and LDR modules, and the LED brightness can be modified by tuning a resistor on the ground pin if needed.

It looks quite functional when played in the video, and can even play multiple notes at a time. Its 15 LEDs not only allow one to play notes, but two of the LED/LDR pairs can adjust the octave up or down, and another can select between over 75 musical instruments available on Pygame.

[h/t/: Raspberry Pi]