Helical Keyboard

Michael Cohen and Jens Herder
(with Haruki Sato)
University of Aizu
Aizu-Wakamatsu 965-8580
Japan
e-mail: {mcohen,herder}@u-aizu.ac.jp
WWW: http://www.u-aizu.ac.jp/~{mcohen,herder}

We have modeled a helical keyboard, a piano-style keyboard wrapped through a left-handed helix. The model was generated with Mathematica and exported into VRML. A MIDI streamer animates the model in Open Inventor, which system is augmented with virtual reality techniques including sound spatialization, multiple user instantiations, automatic camera control, and resource management.

Relevant links:

The model can be rendered to exploit ChromaDepth(TM) cues to obtain 3D effects using chromastereoptic eyewear. (We have no connection with Chromatek, other than being satisfied customers. Above is a meta-link to other sites that use this technology, most of which are better than our prototype.)

Warning: In very rare instances, chromastereoptic images may be dangerous. If you feel your head getting warmer while viewing such images, look away quickly before your eyeballs explode.