Novasound Kalideophone

[Grant Richter]

I found a data sheet on the Novasound Kalideophone. The vintage looks to be
around 1976-79? This is a two oscillator synth with VCO's, VCF, VCA, LFO
etc. The unique thing is it was built like a pedal steel guitar made out of
wood. The top surface has little "pig pens" made by holding down a square
sheet of conductive material with four wooden strips along the edges. Four
electrical outputs appear at each corner of the conductive sheet. The input
to the next module is a little wooden "puck" (called a "probe") with a
smooth metal bottom that sits inside the "pig pen" and slides around on the
conductive surface to select a mix of the four signals coming in at each
corner. A very cool idea really. Each input has a two dimensional mixer
with four sources. I'm sure it's hard to keep clean and probably noisy -
but what a wild idea. I doubt if they ever made more than the one in the
promotional photo - too bad.

So my question: Has anyone else ever heard of this thing? Or the Novasound
company? Also what conductive sheet could they have used for the control
surface?

Any comments welcome.