Octavio: A Distributed System for the Sensing, Storing, and Retrieval of Piano Playing Data

Abstract

MIT has a wealth of pianos spread across its campus. These instruments are owned by various groups and MIT organizations. Every day, students, faculty, and extended members of the MIT community play and practice with them. However, there currently exists no available data on their usage. This project aims to create the infrastructure for capturing this data. To this end, we installed sensing equipment on pianos across campus, constructed a matching database and filesystem of all playing sessions across time, and established a public API for the retrieval of this data. The collected data will later be used to power a publicly accessible webpage of real-time and historical visualizations, as well as serve to bolster research efforts into the characteristic piano playing of MIT.