For anyone that’s ever had wild dreams of being a talented drummer, now is the time to get started and show off your secret skills that you’ve kept to yourself for all these years. And you can not only now do it from the comfort of your own home, but even from the comfort of your own kitchen table. A highly unique Swedish company known as Smart Textiles by geniuses Mats Johansson and Li Guo has come out with a musical tablecloth that actually allows you to produce your very own music by pressing the drums and piano keys printed on the tablecloth, believe it or not.
According to the makers, Mats and Li, the key behind this innovative musical tablecloth is sensors. The two of them were both interested in music and sensors, and wanted to find a fun way to combine their two passions. They already had the textile technologies and what was left was to add the piano prints. And for the drums, they added laminated textile structures. The real challenge for the makers was to integrate hard electronic components with soft fabrics, making the tablecloth still a work in progress. Nonetheless, however the musical tablecloth is nothing short of incredibly impressive.
This kind of sensor technology can also be used in a wide variety of other applications, and especially so when it comes to health monitoring from home. Li Guo, one of the creators, also believes that their work in textile technology will also be able to contribute to the future of wearable technology, such as clothing that can track, gather and transmit data, expressing that while watches exist, not everyone wears them on a daily basis. Clothes, on the other hand, are something that is always on us. So what are you playing on your kitchen table tonight?