so you wanna be the next Beethoven or Chopin?

with the government encouraging more people to take up arts (think the new arts school, our famous esplanade) + increasing living expenses (think increased erp charges, bus fares, petrol prices blah blah blah..) + smaller homes (5-room flats converted to 2 room/ 3 room flats), who will have the space/ money to buy a grand piano if their son/ daughter aspires to be the next Beethoven or Chopin or closer to home, Melvin Tan (paiseh ah, cannot find a proper description of him in the press)?

well kudos to the japanese (seems like their sun is still rising and not setting as china slowly becomes the next big thing in asia) for coming up with such a device where even an 88-key grand piano can be replicated!!

digital information development (DID) has developed a highly portable virtual piano that is played with a keyboard consisting of projected laser beams.

the box-shaped device measures about 10 x 3 x 3 cm (4 x 1 x 1 in.) and weighs about 100 grams (3.5 oz.). using a red semiconductor laser module and holographic optical element, the device projects a 25-key 2-octave keyboard onto the surface in front of it (black surfaces don’t work because they absorb the light). a CMOS camera module and infrared (invisible) red semiconductor laser module detect which keys are touched, and the corresponding notes are emitted from speakers built into the device. chords can also be played, and DID claims it is technically possible to reproduce weighted notes (but presumably not with this version).

the keyboard has 3 other voices in addition to piano — organ, pipe organ and harpsichord. it is scheduled for release in japan in november 2006 and is expected to cost around 15,000 yen (US$130).

[source: Yomiuri Shimbun]