For our project, we made a musical instrument with 3 components.  One component is the keyboard.  The keyboard is composed of 8 touch sensors which play a scale of notes.  The second component is 3 motors that play a sound effect.  The motors used a read rotation sensor that plays sound effects when the angle of rotation does not equal 0, then resets the angle of rotation to zero.  The third component is two ultrasonic sensors that, when the user’s hand is less than 15 cm away, make a drum sound.  All of these components were placed inside a cardboard box structure.  The sound effects were played by using the system execution function.  We then typed the terminal command afplay into the command line followed by the file name of a sound effect file.  Since there were a lot of sensors to use, we daisy-chained three EV3s together so they could communicate.  Overall, this project adds to the basic idea of a keyboard by allowing children to experiment with different sounds in addition to keyboard. 
 
 

Our survey:
 
1. Are the controls easy to use? 
The piano and sound effects are easy to use, but the drums do not work and are hard to reach.  Also, the delay makes it confusing and it is difficult to play two things together.

2. What would make it look cooler?  
More colors, better-looking box
 
3. What kinds of sounds would you add to make it sound cooler?  
More animal sound effects, being able to play chords better
 
4. What was your favorite sound?  
The cow
 
5. What was your least favorite sound?  
The drums
 
6. Would you like playing this with a friend?  
Yes
 
Observations:

• It wasn’t obvious what the drums were supposed to do
• Drums were difficult to use/would only work if hand was placed over it in a certain way
• Kids really liked the sound effects, but many didn’t know how to use them at first
• There was a delay between when the sensor was triggered and when the sound was played which made it difficult to play songs or play 2+ things at the same time

 
Feedback:

• Average of 4/5
• Loved animal sounds, add more (ex: monkey)
• More intuitive controls
• Faster reaction time for playing notes
• Playing notes at the same time

 
How we will improve:

• Use a decorated wooden box structure instead of an undecorated cardboard one to improve aesthetic and stability
• Focus on adding more animal sound effects
• Debug the code in order to decrease reaction time of sensor triggers so timing/playing at the same time is easier, so multiple people can use it at the same time
• Take away drums since the sensor was inconsistent and difficult to use
• Reposition controls so they make more sense
• Add more pictorial directions so they are easy to understand