When developers in Austria created an ultra-thin paper piano with a Near Field Communication (NFC) chip that connects the device to a mobile app, they didn’t plan to sell a product. The technology Prelonic Technologies prototyped—and then demonstrated in a widely watched video, released in December 2021—was intended to be part fun and part challenge for other innovators. As it turns out, however, the video sparked interest from both end users and global toy manufacturers.
Prelonic is now in conversations with some of these manufacturers to determine how NFC-based printed electronics and creativity can merge to create new games. The technology is simple, says Friedrich Eibensteiner, the company CEO: a printed paper keyboard, an NFC chip and an app is all users would need to play a tune via their smartphone. Touching the keys on the paper keyboard triggers corresponding keys on the smartphone app and generates the related musical notes.
The piano is a piece of paper with NFC electronics printed on it, along with a standard NFC chip and two antennas.
Prelonic Technologies makes products such as electrochromic displays, printed batteries, interactive paper and other printed electronics. The firm has been developing solutions for hybrid products that leverage a silicon chip and printed electronics, such as antennas that transmit data from the chip. Its customers include NanoThings, an Internet of Things (IoT) company providing LoRaWAN-based solutions for cold supply chain monitoring. Recently, though, Eibensteiner began contemplating how NFC technology, which has a ubiquitous presence in phones, could be used in more creative ways.
Beyond providing standard access to a website or enabling customers to make payments, Eibensteiner envisioned leveraging printed electronics, together with a silicon chip, to broaden the technology’s applications. Barcodes and QR codes can accomplish many of the tasks for which NFC is commonly being used these days, he explains, but NFC promises more functionality for those with some vision. “Advanced NFC technology offers a high degree of freedom for design and functionality,” he states.
In late 2021, Eibensteiner worked with his son, Lukas Eibensteiner, for four or five days to develop the NFC-enabled piano, printed on a piece of paper. The goal, he recalls, was simple: to show the world an example of what NFC technology can do. Eibensteiner’s son plays piano and is also a programmer, and together they developed a rudimentary musical instrument. The piano is a piece of paper with NFC electronics printed on it, along with a standard NFC chip and two antennas. The company reports that Prelonic’s interactive paper (PIP) is designed for the interaction of paper and mobile devices.
Several keys can be pressed simultaneously to accomplish a chord, and a user’s phone then plays the tune related to the keys pressed.
The father-son team first printed the keyboard with a standard laser printer, then printed a layer of electronics in the form of conductive carbon, which makes up the key switches and antennas. Between the two layers, they sandwiched a standard 13.56 MHz NFC chip, compliant with the ISO 14443 standard. The chip includes eight input-output interfaces that are linked to printed switches representing each of eight piano keys printed on the paper. Each key has printed circuitry to recognize when it has been pressed, thereby closing contact.
There needed to be some innovation in the keys, Eibensteiner says, because the paper piano required the system to detect when somebody pressed any part of a printed key (which measures about an inch in width). Developers can adjust the printing process to change how hard keys need to be pressed to create a contact between parts of the carbon-based circuitry. The video demonstrates how it works: First, an individual would download an app on an Android-based device. The app would then accomplish a link between each pressed key on the paper piano and the tone emitted from the phone.
Friedrich Eibensteiner
The user would lay out the paper piano, and the NFC tag built into it would transmit data to the phone as it was being interrogated. That person could then begin playing notes by pressing the printed keys. The switch inside each key would close a contact when pressed, and the NFC tag would detect that action and send data back to the phone indicating that, for example, key number seven (corresponding with the key of C) had been pressed. Several keys could be pressed simultaneously to accomplish a chord. The phone would then play the tune related to the keys chosen.
In that way, the system makes it possible for someone to play a very simple song, including chords, though they are limited to only eight keys, or a single octave. The rate of transmission from the NFC chip to the phone is fast enough to ensure the music plays along with the pianist’s key presses, Eibensteiner explains. Once the paper piano was prototyped and tested, the company videotaped its performance and made it available at its website. “We issued a small press release,” he says, which was the only public relations effort.
The solution was never intended to be more than a demonstration of how creative developers could be when it comes to NFC technology, Eibensteiner admits. Unexpectedly however, he was contacted by individuals looking to buy the “piano,” maybe as a Christmas present for their son or daughter. Toy and game manufacturers also contacted the company, and those conversations are ongoing. Eibensteiner says the company cannot disclose the names of those companies.
Prelonic Technologies has no intention of commercializing the product, Eibensteiner notes. The demonstration is designed simply to show what is possible. “I think NFC is still being underestimated,” he says. “If you have such an easy thing that demonstrates well, think what else you could do. I wanted to trigger as many brains as possible to think how this technology can be used and how simple it can be.” Eibensteiner hopes to attract the attention of creative innovators. “I’m addicted to hybrid electronics and NFC technology—for 20 years, I’ve been thinking in this area.”
The value of printed electronics, Eibensteiner adds, is in its sustainability and the relatively low cost of deployment, which allows products such as the piano to be created. The building of the product required only four or five days, he reports, while his son spent additional time programming the app. Too often, he says, manufacturers and other businesses wait for technicians to have creative ideas. Instead, Eibensteiner says, there needs to be a connection of creative and technical expertise, what he calls “a place where the two spheres of know-how meet.” He adds, “That’s where the ideas begin.”