A Keyboard? How Quaint

Do you want to play piano but have no room in your home or office for an actual piano? Well, then, why not learn the notes to Billy Joel's "Table Man" and try the "virtual piano":

Digital Information Development (DID) has developed a highly portable virtual piano that is played with a keyboard consisting of projected laser beams.

The box-shaped device measures about 10 x 3 x 3 cm (4 x 1 x 1 in.) and weighs about 100 grams (3.5 oz.). Using a red semiconductor laser module and holographic optical element, the device projects a 25-key 2-octave keyboard onto the surface in front of it (black surfaces don’t work because they absorb the light). A CMOS camera module and infrared (invisible) red semiconductor laser module detect which keys are touched, and the corresponding notes are emitted from speakers built into the device. Chords can also be played, and DID claims it is technically possible to reproduce weighted notes (but presumably not with this version).

Essentially, it turns any surface into a piano. While I can certainly see the advantages in playing the desk, the kitchen table, or the automobile dashboard, I think this could revolutionize the massage industry. Just project the keyboard on someone's back and get Keith Emerson or Rick Wakeman to come in and do a solo or two. It would be quite the workout. Could be fun with significant others and/or pets, too.