A request to consider developing a multi-touch velocity-sensitive roller display microtonal midi keyboard

Dear Jeff Han,

Your commendable research into multi-touch display technology prompted me to
approach you.

I am a graduate pianist from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, a doctorate
student in Istanbul Technical University Turkish Music Conservatory
Musicology and Music Theory Department, composer, maqam theorist, exponent
of a 79-tone kanun, and a burgeoning microtonalist.

As member of the yahoogroups alternate tuning list community, I am
particularly concerned with the threat posed by the global monopoly of
12-tone equal electronic instruments against
non-Western/"xenharmonic"/ethnic musics and genres.

In brief, absence of a versatile midi keyboard that allows the
polyphonic/chordal manipulation of diverse tunings has been nothing short of
a botheration for our group. Existing designs are limited by the built-in
number of keys and those depression surfaces that are emancipated from them
are impossible to correctly tune on-the-fly.

This is why, I would like to bring to your attention the pressing need to
innovate a microtonal interface accomodating any kind of keyboard
configuration as the user may desire.

If I may be so bold as to suggest what is in my mind:

1. A portable rollable display such as the one seen in
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/philips-shows-rollable-display-123512.php
but specifically manufactured to match the breadth of an ordinary 4-octave
electronic keyboard,

2. A multi-touch and pressure sensor layer that accompanies the display for
velocity-sensitive polyphony,

3. Integration with Manuel op de Coul's SCALA Chromatic Clavier
(http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/scala/) and similar interactive software for
various microtonal display arrangements,

4. Audio/Midi Controller functions such as those in Ozonic at
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Ozonic-main.html.

I hope to have aroused your interest in the development of such a device.

Cordially,
Ozan Yarman
www.ozanyarman.com