To: Dr. Batill and Dr. Renaud
From: Mini-Mozarts
Date: 9/19/2006
RE: Group Concept Selection Memo
Introduction
Mini-Mozarts has decided to develop an interactive xylophonic keyboard. The primary purpose of this instrument will be to teach young children the basics of reading music. It will also help them to develop the coordination necessary to play the piano.
Target Market
This product is intended for three to six year old children and their parents and educators. This specific age range was reached through discussion with Mrs. Terri Kosik at the Notre Dame Early Childhood Development Center. Mrs. Kosik stated that around the age of five children develop the ability to comprehend written symbols and their inherent significance. Therefore, it is the group’s belief that this age group will be able to make full use of the product. The three to five year old age group, however, can still utilize the product in a more “exploratory” method; in playing the keys and listening to the effects the user can begin to lay the framework of tone and pitch recognition.
Description of Product
The product Mini-Mozarts has decided to develop is an interactive xylophonic keyboard that instills an interest in music, and helps children learn to read music and to begin to develop the coordination necessary to play the piano. The basic idea of this product is a small keyboard that interacts with a musical staff with sliding notes. This instrument will be capable of being played manually or automatically, and it will also have a mode in which the child is prompted to play the notes they have chosen with the sliding notes on the musical staff.
The current plan for the keyboard is for it to have eleven notes (to allow for playability of most children’s songs), and the instrument played by the keys will be a xylophone. In other words, striking a key activates a mechanism that will strike the xylophone plate to produce the desired note. Details on this mechanism will be provided later in this memo.
The purpose of the sliding notes is to help children learn to read music. There will be sliding notes on a treble clef staff, and the position of a slider corresponds to a specific musical note. The child can arrange each of the sliders, and then the instrument will be capable of automatically playing the music on the staff. The method of automation will be solenoids that strike the four-bar mechanisms to strike the xylophone plate to produce the desired notes. Furthermore, with a “play-along” mode, the instrument will prompt the child to hit the key corresponding to the note chosen by the musical slider by illuminating a light on top of the key. After that key has been struck, it will prompt the child to strike the key corresponding to the next musical slider. This will happen after each key has been struck, until all notes represented by the sliders have been played. In this way, the child can learn that notes on a staff actually correspond to keys on a keyboard, can begin to acquire the basics of reading music, and can learn to play simple songs.
With regards to the younger children, they most likely will not be capable of learning to read music yet. For this reason, the instrument will be able to be played without the interaction of the slider notes. But even at a young age, simply hitting keys to play notes can help develop a child’s auditory awareness through awareness, creativity, and self-expression.
Key Technical Issues
1.) Transmittal of force from key to xylophone plate
The force generated by the user needs to be transmitted to the xylophone. In order to do this, the four-bar mechanism will need to be as effective as possible (as the user will, most likely, be relatively weak). When the child strikes the key, the force transmitted to the key will cause a link with a hammer at its end to strike the xylophone plate. With a poor force transmission, the sound produced will be weak and not sufficiently stimulating to the child’s auditory senses. Also, given that this instrument will have eleven different keys, it will also need eleven different four-bar mechanisms. The weight of the links in the mechanism will have to be minimized so as not to make the instrument too heavy.
2.) Resistance of Sliding Notes
The sliding notes on the staff will create a resistance by an electrical device, such as a potentiometer (to be determined by a trade study), and the note’s position on the staff will be determined by reading that resistance created. It has to be determined how to handle the range of resistance on each sliding note. It is possible that set of resistances corresponding to the different positions on the staff be the same for each sliding note. It might be necessary, however, that each different sliding note has a different set of resistances for its positions, in which case the position of the notes might have to be determined by a range of resistances that are consistent for all the sliding notes. The key is consistency. A “G” for one sliding note has to be a “G” for all the other sliding notes.
3.) Program Interfacing
This instrument is going to require intense programming to interface all of its components. The solenoids and the sliding notes will have to be interfaced for the automated mode. The lights over the keys, the sliding notes, and sensors determining if a key has been struck will have to be interfaced for the “play-along” mode. Furthermore, a set of buttons will have to be interfaced for mode selection. Given the degree of complexity, meticulous care will have to be taken in programming.
Schedule of Key Deliverable Items
09/24/2006 - Size and weight of final product
- Analyzed
- Decision reached
- Peer review
- Discussion
- Will then know specifics on needs for parts
- Parts will ship over fall break
11/03/2006 - Sliding notes board assembled
11/10/2006 - Electronic interfacing completed
11/12/2006 - Draft Design Documentation completed
11/14/2006 - Prototype demonstration completed
11/23/2006 - Concept Design Review planned
11/30/2006 - Documentation due
With regards to all the deadlines required by the class, Mini-Mozarts wants to finish the corresponding deliverables at least two days in advance of the deadline so as to be able to make any final changes without rushing. Parts will be ordered before Fall Break so that prototype assembly can be initiated as soon as break is over.
Last updated: Dec. 4, 2006