2013
The pop-up piano page turns an Arduino into a capacitive sensor, which can sense the electrical capacitance of the human body. Using 1 Arduino and 1 megaohm resistor for each of the keynotes (actually 10 out of 12), wires and copper foil, the sensors work as a human touch pressure sensors that activate the notes on the piano when the keys are pressed.
Please note that two of the notes were not functioning correctly when the video was recorded due to the limited number of resistors I had available (only 10 at the time). Additionally, the instrument is slightly out of tune :)
The electronic pop-up piano was embedded in a pop-up 'book' made with movable parts and other sensors. It was made for my niece's 6th birthday to serve as an inspiration to her future school's years. It was inspired by a multi-sensory book made by my mom when she was studying to become a nursery teacher in Italy in the late '70s I kept it when growing up and I recently rediscovered it. Further updated videos and pictures of the e-piano can be found here and here.
The pop-up piano has been featured on CreativeApplications.Net, Arduino, Atmel, Hackaday and on Discovery Channel's Weird Planet, aired on the 9th of May 2013.
This video features the track "Orchestrated Incident" (Street Bangerz Vol. 2) by Gramatik. No copyright infringement is intended.