A Novel Haptic Interface for Musical Keyboards

José Lozada (1, 2) , Moustapha Hafez (2) , Xavier Boutillon (1)

1 LMS - Laboratoire de mécanique des solides
2 LIS - Laboratoire Interfaces Sensorielles

A novel haptic interface for musical keyboards is presented. The piano key has an embedded active damping system based on magneto-rheological (MR) fluids that allows to reproduce the dynamic behavior of traditional pianos. The MR fluid is encapsulated into a mechanical sealing to avoid leakage. A slider is attached to the back of the key and shears the MR fluid. When a magnetic field is applied across the MR fluid, chains of particles are aligned along the magnetic field lines. The strain of the chains will create a resistant force that can be controlled on real time. An analytical model of the whole system is presented and compared to experimental results.

José Lozada, Moustapha Hafez, Xavier Boutillon. A Novel Haptic Interface for Musical Keyboards. IEEE-ASME conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, 2007, Zürich, Switzerland. 6 p. ⟨hal-00170232⟩