The body of an upright piano was the canvas for this reimagining of a living room staple. Each key is connected to an LED, which lights a corresponding fiber optic strand running through the body. At the same time, a high-density LED display above the keybed shows dancing animated lines, creating the illusion that the notes are shooting from the player’s hand like bolts of colorful electricity. The sounds of the keys were sampled from the original piano strings prior to the rebuild. Several technologies were blended to complete this project – a full-size MIDI keyboard, media server, Arduino Pro Micro, Raspberry Pi, and two types of addressable LEDs all came together to complete the illusion.
