OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING PIANO TO ALL BY USING ELECTRO-MAGNETS TO INFLUENCE RAPID GENERATION OF MUSCLE MEMORY
In this Solo section of my Industrial Design Module, I developed a concept in which an array of electro-magnets is attached to the fingers, and powered by a wrist-band. Industrial Design was always considered, as can be seen in these exploded renders.
The glove is used in conjunction with the simple and sleek housing that attaches to your piano, and can slot in with more of itself, allowing for use on any length piano or keyboard. It functions through coils of wire surrounding magnets, all covered with a thin rubber film.
The magnets on the users hand and on the keys, engage and disengage in time with any song, as well as the LED's. E.g. if a note requires the index finger and note A, these magnets will switch on for the duration of the note at the chosen tempo. This slight pull of the magnet as the hand moves over the keys, will greatly improve creation of muscle memory, by giving additional tactile and visual feedback.
Through many stages of primary and secondary research is was quickly discovered that many people with learning differences struggle to learn music at the rate of those without. Slow building muscle memory was a big reason for this.
This project led on to the BLOK-1 product which can also been seen in my portfolio. It was the result of many stages of ideation and evaluation, some of which you can see in the portfolio pages shown below.
