Successfully made a piano as thin as a sheet of paper

The Austrian company creates paper pianos by printing the keys and circuit boards on paper, which are then combined with chips and smartphones.

Many smartphone users are familiar with NFC technology used for things like contactless payments, sharing data between devices, and secure logins. Austrian technology company Prelonic combines this technology with printed circuit boards to create Paper Piano, New Atlas reported on December 8.

To function, Paper Piano needs PIP and a smartphone.

Prelonic was founded in 2007 with the goal of developing and manufacturing flexible printed electronics, including displays, batteries and sensors. One of its products is Prelonic Interactive Paper (PIP), which combines printed circuit boards and NFC to give users a new way to interact with mobile devices.

To function, Paper Piano needs PIP and a smartphone. The process of creating this product is also not complicated. First, the pros print the piano keys onto a sheet of paper using a standard laser printer. They then printed conductive carbon onto the back of the paper and a simple circuit board onto another. The keyboard sheet has a tiny NFC chip attached to the back and then placed on the circuit board to create an interactive interface.

Next, a smartphone running the accompanying application is placed to the left of the keyboard, right above the location of the NFC chip. The Paper Piano does not need an external power source because the power will be transmitted to the circuit board through the phone antenna. When the user touches any of the 8 white keyboard keys printed on the paper, the corresponding key on the phone will change color and the corresponding note will sound through the speaker.

The Paper Piano is an example of the potential applications of the new technology in advertising, education or games and is not for sale, according to Prelonic. Useful apps might include a paper QWERTY keyboard, which frees up space on the phone screen and provides a more comfortable typing experience, or greeting cards with pictures that can be used to customize photo albums and lists music books on the phone.

"Paper Piano is a hybrid device built primarily by printing that allows you to play an 8-key piano with a mobile phone. This is just one example of what is possible in today's world of technology. ", said Friedrich Eibensteiner, CEO of Prelonic.