Floating Keys
Floating Keys is an interactive, musical project that uses infrared sensors as piano keys and the Processing as the interface for the game. Our main focus was to create a fun twist to playing piano, so that everyone can learn the keys and melodies to famous songs in the format of a game. The insight for this game was to use sensors and processing to create a game, and then my I sudden thought of Guitar Hero. I want the interface to have the style of Guitar Hero, and the player would follow along by correspondingly putting their hands in the range of the sensor. We want this game to be played by everyone. Playing a famous pop song on the piano takes weeks or months to master, and the duration is further affected by your skill on the piano. Most people don’t even try to play it on the piano due to their skill and unfamiliarity with that instrument. However, with the Floating Keys players, no matter of their skill level, can learn melodies within minutes, while enjoying the whole process as a game.
Furthermore, our project is intended for the players to put their hands inside a closed area, or a box, where the sensor is located. Imagine this area to be a rectangle with a side open for the hand to go in. We will use an if statement so that the sensor detects the hand, but not the top of the rectangular area. Say, the distance from the sensor to the top of the rectangular box is 15 cm, we will limit the sensors range to around 14.5 cm, so whenever a hand comes in it detects it, but not the top of the box. Each box will be closed fully on all sides except the hand entrance so users do not just move their hands horizontally and hit all the keys. We intend to have the 5 keys C, D, E, F, and G. I am still not sure of this idea because I want the users to not have an impossible task by moving their two hands to seven keys. We will design these boxes to look like a piano, but add our twist to it which we will decide soon. The game on processing will be similar to guitar hero, where a key comes down the screen to a line, where you must try to press it exactly at the line. We intend to have a points system where if pressed directly on the line, the player will maximize their points. If the player puts his/her hand inside the box before the key hits the line, points will be rewarded, just less than hitting the note perfectly. And the same idea for if the note is not hit. Lastly, we will include a sound system, so that each button pressed creates its actual sound – so the player can actually hear the melody he/she is playing. We want the design of the project to attract audiences, and have the interface and game simple enough that the players can understand how to play and start the game. This is done by adding a tutorial, where the player can test out the keys and the response time on the game to get used to it. The point system is the result of each player’s interaction with the game, as we intend to have a leaderboard at the end to create competition. We want users to have fun, simply learn the melodies of songs, and compete with one another.
First, we want to create a prototype for our design, and have it done before the start of next week. This is to have an idea of what our final product will look like and the get the dimensions of each box in mind. Second, we want to test out the prototype with a sensor, say key C, and connect it with an MP3 player to play the corresponding sound(which we can borrow in the equipment room). Once we get key C done, we will move on to the other four keys, create a box, and use a sensor for each. We should complete this by the weekend of November 30th. After we have all this finished, we will move onto the processing part of things. The interface will definitely take a while to create, so we intend do work on this on the same weekend of November 30th. If we don’t finish on the weekend we still have one more week to do this task, because we plan on combining and testing the whole project on December 6-9. During this whole process we will keep refining the design, and create a smoother experience for the players.
The other projects we proposed were interesting, but not as appealing as this one. This was the first project we thought of and the ideas for how to do this just fell into place when we were writing the proposal. Our second proposal, the game platform, influenced the gaming interface of this project. We were looking up games to add to that proposal and I suddenly thought of playing Guitar Hero on my old Xbox. It all added up with our idea of a piano with sensors. Furthermore, I believe our project aligns with interaction in that it allows the players to learn new melodies by moving their hands inside sensors. Each player’s hand movement and reaction speed are their interactions with the project, which is aimed at a higher score each time. The uniqueness of our project is that we add a twist to a typical piano by using technology and previous experiences. We want the player’s experience to be unique by being excited to learn new melodies due to the simplicity of the game, which is also its difference from an orthodox piano. We intend our project to be played by everyone, no matter their skill level in piano or their knowledge of music notes. We want those with the least experience to have as much fun as those with more experience in music. I feel like our project could become an actual game, on Xbox or Playstation as a twist to Guitar Hero. Since there have not been any new ground shaking music games since Guitar Hero and Rock Band, Floating Keys could possibly be the next. Of course this is a result of our project becoming more complicated by having numerous songs and more keys. However, this final product could be an interesting game for everyone, of different musical skill levels to enjoy.