Really Big Piano

In the movie "Big", with Tom Hanks, there is a famous sequence, where Hanks plays on a huge piano keyboard, filmed I think in the FAO Schwartz flagship store in NYC. In 1993 and 1994, our product development group was looking for cool designs that combined the physical, intellectual and social development areas into one activity. We decided that music and movement embodied in a huge "Step Piano" would be an exciting and effective way to do that.

The steps used in the prototype were soft, foam-filled pads that we already had in production. I had to come up with the overall form, design the mechanisms, and hire an electronics engineer to help develop the synthesizer that would generate the sounds. Early on, we decided to go electronic, mainly to provide more variety in tonal output, and to make the active mechanisms as simple as possible. For simplicity, and to limit the footprint, I chose to provide only 11 "white key" notes, but in a tonal series that provided both a major and a minor diatonic scale sequence, depending on where you start. This allows a greater set of melodic possibilities. I also made it fully polyphonic, meaning that if you depressed all of the keys simultaneously, all of the corresponding tones would sound simultaneously. This way, children could really explore tonality in a very open way, in accordance with their own level of curiosity.

The first thing that I did was to create a prototype that we could set up indoors, and get some kids on it to see if we were barking up the right tree. This prototype used many of the same electronic components that I later used in the field prototype, such as the synthesizer and power supply. This appeared to e be a smashing success, and got our people very excited. It felt like we were breaking new ground in the playground equipment industry again, and that educators, even non-musical ones, would be excited. After cleaning it up some, I even took it to our annual sales meeting (in San Jose, CA, that year, to coincide with the National Recreation and Parks Assoc. annual meeting and trade show). It really made an impact - the sales reps were all over it, literally. I couldn't locate any photos of this unit for this blog, unfortunately, but it was basically a long, low wooden box with the footpads on top, and a separate podium that contained the controls and the processor.

The stepping-pad bearings for the field prototype were interesting - my engineer originally suggested using a giant hinge, but I realized that we didn't need a thing like that, because there was so little movement (about 1/2" at the switch end of the pads, far less at the hinge end.) Therefore, I designed a simple plastic block that supported the end of the steel plate that sat under the pads, and allowed me to bolt a small steel plate into position that trapped the steel plate and pad securely, without undue restriction of the action. Later, I realized that we could have eliminated all of that and simply bolted flat steel plates to a rail, and let the natural springiness of the steel provide the movement and return spring action (as log as you don't exceed the modulus of elasticity, steel will return to its original shape indefinitely).

I designed a special wooden platform in the shape of a grand piano that has been laterally stretched out, and a general steel framework to hold everything in place. Three wooden posts, based on units from our standard product line supported the speakers, control panel, and a simple handrail. The power supply was a "UL Class 2" 12-volt system (very safe), located remotely (about 100 feet away in a portable classroom, with a buried conduit, for the field prototype). The control panel was also designed based on the image of a grand piano. It allowed users to select from several voices - piano, violin, banjo, and "cosmo" by pushing a button. To expand the "play value", I also included two buttons that allowed the pitch to be raised by a musical half-tone up or down, at any time during use. The tone could be varied up to an octave in this way. Pressing both these buttons at the same time would automatically reset it to the original default tone. For the field test unit, the computer-based synthesizer was buried in a vault below the piano, to protect it from heat and vandals. In the end, the "waterproof" vault failed about four months into the field trial, destroying the synthesizer, and providing the final nail in the coffin for this project.

I hired a local electronics engineer to develop the electronics, but ended up with some regrets that have caused me to change the way that I have related to outside contractors since. I think that the relationship was poor, for several reasons. One was communication - his style was to work on it alone for a length of time, and not report to me, sometimes not even when I attempted to contact him. This left me much too far out of the loop on progress and our expenses. Another aspect was the level of signal noise infiltration from outside sources that the engineer would allow - I think that he was far too cautious and too much of a perfectionist in that regard. In the end, I think that I could have adapted an existing Casio or Sony keyboard, connected it by shielded wires to my stepping pads, and thereby eliminate most of the custom electronics from the product entirely, even if it had occasional minor glitches in the tonal quality or performance.

Since then, in regard to outside contracted services, I have been much more forceful and up front in expressing my expectations and what the deliverables will be, as well as in getting clarification about how much money is involved, and in defining milestones and key dates in the development schedule.

Overall, I think that this could have made it into production at a fair retail cost, around 3,000 to 4,000 dollars, and would have been a unique and successful addition to the product line. Sadly, management didn't agree, and the project was terminated before I was allowed to try my improved, simplified design.