Eye Play the Piano
HAKUHODO Kettle
Issue 35 | June 2015
Agency
The University of Tsukuba's Special Needs Schools
Creative Team
Creative Director: Shota Hatanaka(Hakuhodo Kettle) Producer: Keitaro Kamijo(AID-DCC Inc.) Technical Director; Masashi Ohashi(AID-DCC Inc.) Kenjiro Matsuo(Invisible Designs Lab.) Designer: Yuri Morimoto(AID-DCC Inc.) Motion Designer: Takayuki Kitai(AID-DCC Inc.) Sound Producer: Kenjiro Matsuo(Invisible Designs Lab.) Programmer: Masashi Ohashi(AID-DCC Inc.) Yoshiaki Kajiyashiki(AID-DCC Inc.) System Engineer: Masaru Kinoshita(AID-DCC Inc.) Transporter: Kentaro Muraishi(AID-DCC Inc.) Special Thanks: Yuka Kojima(FOVE) Lochiainn Wilson(FOVE) Bakui Chou(FOVE) Producer: Toshiyuki Takei(TOKYO) Assistant Producer: Masayoshi Takayanagi(TOKYO) Production Manager: Rintaro Kozasa(TOKYO) Tomoya Tajima(TAIYO KIKAKU) Production Assistant: Miwa Onishi (TAIYO KIKAKU) Director: Kazuma Kitada(TOKYO) Camera: Shingo Ikeura Keiichi Tomita Ryosuke Toyama Sound: Takami Yuasa (Blue Bayou) Lighting: Koki Kurihara Artwork: Chizumi Hasegawa(cultrange) Rina Nakamura (OFFICE HARA) Off-line Editing: Keiichi Nakajima Yoshitaka Honda PR Producer: Takashi Uno Ryo Muramatsu
Production Team
AID-DCC Inc. Invisible Designs Lab. TOKYO / TAIYOKIKAKU co.,ltg
Date
December 2014
Background
Visually, audibly, and physically challenged people have limitations on expressing themselves freely. The University of Tsukuba's Special Needs Schools declares "expanding the possibilities of children" as their educational philosophy, and aims to provide an educational environment where handicapped students can express their imagination freely.
Idea
Kota Numajiri is a 16-years-old student of this school who suffers from Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a disease that affects muscular development in the arms and legs. He has loved music since he was a little child, and his dream was to play piano by himself. The idea was to develop a universal piano system called "Eye Play the Piano," which enables a user to play piano without using his hands or arms, but only with his eyes. An eye-tracking system was utilised to recognize the direction of eyes through the virtual reality headset. The system detects the user's eye movements to select the keys, and the blinks to play the corresponding note. The arrangement of the standard keyboard, which is designed to be played by hand has been reassembled to an interface which can be played by "sight." A very rich and varied musical performance can be obtained through the combined application of the mono-tone mode and harmonic mode. After 4 months of practicing, the disabled student played the piano for the first Christmas concert at this school.
Results
This project was covered by the media of 37 countries, and played an important role in spreading the uppermost notion of education, that is "to open the children to infinite possibilities." Moreover, through charity fundraising, we were able to donate the device to other 53 schools in Japan. Furthermore, the Ministry of Education has started to fully introduce the system to expressive education, which has advanced the future of special education in Japan. As a result, this project has won the media publicity of over 7 million dollars.