The University of Tsukuba’s Special Needs Schools declares "expanding the possibilities
of children" as their educational philosophy, and aims to provide an educational
environment where handicapped students can express their imagination freely.

Kota Numajiri is a 16-years-old student of this school who suffers from Spinal Muscular
Atrophy, a disease that affects muscular development in the arms and legs.
He has loved music since he was a little child, and his dream was to play piano by himself.

Our idea was to develop a universal piano system called “Eye Play the Piano,” which
enables a user to play piano without using his hands or arms, but only with his eyes.

1. The virtual reality headset perceives the users eye movement through the mounted eye tracking technology.

2. The preferred note can be triggered by looking at the panel within the interface,
which has been developed to be played by sight.

3. The user blinks on the preferred panels within the interface to trigger the selected note,
which is then conveyed to the connected piano via MIDI signal.

4. Furthermore, tilting down of the head plays the role of the piano pedal which lengthens the selected note.

The arrangement of the standard keyboard, which is designed to be played by hand has
been reassembled to an interface which can be played by “sight.”
A very rich and varied musical performance can be obtained through the combined
application of the mono-tone mode and harmonic mode.

After 4 months of practicing, the disabled student played the piano for
the first Christmas concert at this school.

This project was covered by the media of 37 countries, and played an important role
in spreading the uppermost notion of education, that is “to open the children to infinite possibilities.”

Moreover, through charity fundraising, we were able to donate the device to other 53 schools in Japan.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Education has started to fully introduce the system to expressive education,
which has advanced the future of special education in Japan.