Design and Applications of a Multi-touch Musical Keyboard

This paper presents a hardware and software system for adding multiple touch sensitivity to the piano-style keyboard. The traditional keyboard is a discrete interface, defining notes by onset and release. By contrast, our system allows continuous gestural control over multiple dimensions of each note by sensing the position and contact area of up to three touches per key. Each key consists of a circuit board with a capacitive sensing controller, laminated with thin plastic sheets to provide a traditional feel to the performer. The sensors, which are less than 3mm thick, mount atop existing acoustic or electronic piano keyboards. The hardware connects via USB, and software on a host computer generates OSC messages reflecting a broad array of lowand high-level gestures, including motion of single points, twoand three-finger pinch and slide gestures, and continuous glissandos tracking across multiple keys. This paper describes the system design and presents selected musical applications.