Learning an instrument is hard.

So why not make it fun?

The Kalictric is no ordinary kalimba.

Its sensors transform it into a learning tool, a composition maker and countless other things.

THE STORY

Learning the kalimba should be easy, right? After all, it's just a bunch of keys that you pluck with your fingers.

Not really. And when you have a problem, what do you do? You invent a machine to help you learn! Well, I did exactly that, and the Kalictric was born. It the result of combining a Raspberry Pi, a MPR121 capacitive touch sensor, a kalimba and a bunch of alligator clips with code. It can be used as a learning tool for the beginner, a song teacher for the intermediate-level kalimba player and a composition maker for the expert.

THE MAKING

Kalictric didn't magically appear one day. The first obstacle was finding a way to detect when the kalimba keys were plucked. My first idea was using buttons, but I found out that the vibrations of the keys were too small to be detected with buttons. Then I tried putting aluminum strip pressure buttons on top of the keys to detect when the fingers were on them. That worked, but making them extremely thin resulted in them breaking quickly. I then turned to the idea of using proximity sensors to determine when fingers were on keys, but I figured that that would make it inefficient and bulky. Finally, I settled on using a capacitive touch sensor to detect keypresses. However, this method isn't perfect either. You have to be playing with bare hands for the sensor to pick up the touch, and the current assembly is rather fragile.

THE PLANNING

Currently, the key detection module is functional and can accurately detect keypresses and send them to the Raspberry Pi. We will then start to make the modules on which the features are built on: the graphics module for the user interface, the keypress module to actually detect when the kalimba keys are plucked and the two MIDI modules - one for reading MIDI files that would be used by the learning tool to read songs, and one for the composition maker to write songs. Then come the programs themselves, and finally the hardware would be improved so it looks less like a jumble of wires on a breadboard.

Here is the current status and future plan:

• ~5/30: Brainstormed ideas for key detection
• ~6/10: Initial prototype assembly of Raspberry Pi and sensors
• 6/11: Successful key detection test using capacitive touch sensor
• 6/17: Started keypress module
• 6/22: Finished keypress module
• 6/30: Started graphics module for learning tool, song teacher and composition.
• 7/11: Started MIDI READ module for learning tool and song teacher.
• 7/17: Finished graphics module and MIDI READ module.
• 7/18: Started MIDI WRITE module.
• 7/20: Maker Faire Proposal Accepted!
• 8/2: Finish MIDI WRITE module; begin learning tool and song teacher
• 8/10: Finish learning tool and song teacher; begin composition
• 8/17: Finish composition tool; improve cosmetics and hardware stability (case, soldering etc)
• 9/1: Final tweaking; finish improving hardware
• 9/22 - 9/23: Maker Faire!

THE MAKER

Jieruei Chang has had a long interest in robotics & programming since he was five. Now, seven years later, he is the creator of dozens of Scratch games, a partially self-taught artist, the owner of three violins, and is a somewhat decent kalimba player.