PianoRF: A Portable and Lightweight Piano System based on RFID

Research has shown that playing the piano has immeasurable physical and psychological benefits for both the elderly and children. It can not only boost cognitive function, social skills, and spatial-temporal skills, but also relieve stress, anxiety, and depression. However, traditional pianos are often too expensive and bulky while electronic pianos may not be portable enough. In addition, some individuals may find it difficult to identify mistakes when practicing the piano alone at home. But hiring a piano teacher can be a significant burden for an average household. To address these issues, this paper introduces PianoRF, a portable and lightweight piano system based on RFID technology. The basic idea of PianoRF is to employ RFID tags as the piano keyboard. However, severe coupling effects and multipath interference can occur between adjacent tags. To avoid this, we modified the traditional RFID tag by cutting off its circuit at a proper position and adding a silicone button and a self-made keypad. Thus, the circuit of the tag is only connected when pressing its button, and then we can identify the key press according to the received signals from the pressed tag. Compared to existing piano learning systems, PianoRF can be simply placed on a flat surface so that users can play the piano anytime and anywhere. Moreover, PianoRF can generate a feedback report, which helps users identify their mistakes and improve their piano-playing skills.