[sdiy] Kickstarter - capacitive multitouch overlays for keyboard

[cheater00 .]

On Sat, Aug 17, 2013 at 11:03 PM, Nathanael King
<nate at paperproductsmusic.com> wrote:
> This seems counter-intuitive. The human hand is shaped a certain way, so
> different key fingerings will yield totally different results.

Similarly, strumming the guitar with different fingers will yield
totally different results. I call that expression, you call it
imperfection, but I think we're both looking at two sides of the same
thing.

> So, this ALL
> depends on the software. If you finger a chord in A, and then move to E, the
> positions of the fingers on the keys will be totally different. Will the
> software be smart enough to know that? Otherwise, the idea of vertical
> sensitivity on keyboard keys seems like a waste. Of course, it's GPL, but
> still, it's a lot of money for what to me seems kind of silly........... for
> what it immediately seems to be. "There's an app for that" as they say.

If you are concerned about your fingers being different lengths, then
rather than using tin snips you might just want to use relative mode,
like on a touch pad, where any movement is relative to the initial
position of your finger when you first touched the pad. Since keys are
very long themselves, there's room for a lot of movement. One might
want to make keys that are even longer, especially considering the
movement of the thumb (having to fit the thumb is the reason why black
keys are shorter).

> Yet,
> the keyboard as a musical instrument is slightly arcane and could be pushed
> a lot further.  There are still hardly any boards with poly AT? for real? If
> this is a tool that helps keyboard design over the edge then I'm for it, but
> I'll sit and wait in the meantime.

I think it's just going in a different direction. There's no reason
not do one thing (sensing of finger position) until another is
perfected (polyphonic aftertouch).
BTW, they're not only sensing vertical, but also horizontal finger
position. I bet there's also a way to sense the size of the area where
the finger presses onto the plates. Here's your poly AT. This too can
be normalized so that different fingers give you the same results. So
maybe it's something for you after all.

And you're right, even if I don't know if the software supports it,
since it's GPL I'm sure it can be tweaked.

> PS: a broken key sounds really expensive....

Hmm, what do you mean?

D.