Reliable, Beautiful, & Interactive

A piano staircase at Olin College

Project Goal

For the final project for the Principles of Engineering class at Olin, create a mobile interactive piano staircase with $250.


Overarching Goals

We wanted Stairpeggio to be

  • reliable,
  • mobile,
  • robust,
  • recreatable,
  • interactive,
  • and have good sound quality.

Minimum Deliverables

At minimum we wanted to make a series of 8 boxes (for the 8 notes in an octave), each containing

  • 1 infra-red sensor
  • 1 solenoid
  • 1 glockenspiel key, and
  • 1 protoboard.

Stretch Deliverables

If given the time and remaining budget, we also wanted to include

  • lights for each box that lit up when the note is played, and
  • a "tutorial mode" in which the lights guide the user to play a specific song.

Special thanks

A big shoutout to Wendy Chin, Sam Chin's mom, for mailing us the glockenspiel keys.