Learning to play a new instrument is an exciting endeavour until you get caught up in the hours of mind-numbing practice required to get proficient. But if learning the piano is up next on your bucket list, you'll be desperate to get your hands on this clever projection system that makes learning the ivories easier—and dare we say: fun.
Taking inspiration from how Rock Band 3 can almost instantly turn anyone into a basic pianist, the Projected Instrument Augmentation system—aka PIANO—developed by musicians and researchers at the University of Ulm in Germany, uses a series of moving blocks to indicate what key needs to be played next.
As the blocks slowly move towards the actual keyboard, they give players advance notice of how a song is progressing, and each block's color indicates what finger should be used to play it. The system can even indicate when to add ornamentations or flourishes during a piece, and highlights incorrect notes in red. And while it won't guarantee a novice can instantly play like a master pianist, it should help anyone learning the piano get over frustrations that could put an early end to their musical career. [NewScientist via Newlaunches]