Now tickle the ivories and learn how to make soul-soothing music with Magic Keys—Oculus’ Quest’s AR/ MR music educational app.
Mixed reality learning
This July, Facebook has launched its latest augmented reality and mixed reality app Music Keys that will help Oculus Quest/ Quest 2 users to learn piano through a captivating mixed reality experience. This educational augmented reality app is powered by Facebook’s experimental Passthrough API. The sensational music learning app will also allow AR/ VR developers to harness the built-in cameras of Oculus Quest headsets and create mesmerizing mixed reality and virtual reality experiences.
Most recent addition
To date, Oculus Quest has introduced several engaging mixed reality experiences, including interactive AR games and educational AR/ MR experiences. “Magic Keys” is the most recent addition to its exciting range of augmented reality and mixed reality offerings. It was originally developed for the Magic Reality One MR headset. The app leverages Passthrough technology to teach users techniques of making simple piano pieces. With this app, you can learn to play the instrument even though you have no prior experience or knowledge of piano.
Design
With its stunning AR visuals deftly layered over the real world, Magic Key’s design is a clever adaptation of rhythm VR game experiences, such as Guitar Hero or Beat Saber. You can learn to play the instrument by using your hands but through a virtual experience. As you fire up the app, you will have to hit the ivories in sync with the notes flying around your in-headset display.
Import your own tracks
Dominic Hackl, one of the developers of Magic Keys, stated that the initial release of the educational VR app will include support for various custom midi files, which will, in turn, allow users to import their own tracks whenever they want as well as practice their favourite tracks using the app.
Similar apps
Although it sounds promising, Magic Keys is certainly not the first app for learning piano on Oculus Quest. Last year, we have already seen SideQuest’s VRtuos as a VR piano learning app. Similar to Magic Keys, VRtous also let its users import their own tracks as midi files as well as calibrate their physical keyboards to make piano tracks. However, what makes Magic Keys stand ahead of the crowd is that the fact it is going to be the first-ever VR piano learning app on Oculus Quest using Passthrough API.
Standing out
To explain, Hackl mentioned that this is the first-of-its-kind AR app that Facebook has allowed to use the in-headset camera of Oculus Quest to create the augmented reality/ mixed reality experience. Initially, he designed the app to be a simple AR app that could run on a tablet or a PC. Once he found that it could actually work, he stepped up to HoloLens to add more updates and improvements to the application. However, it was visibly limited in possibility due to HoloLens’s small field of view. Once Facebook released its experimental Passthrough API, the project seemed to be feasible.
An official release date for Magic Keys is yet to be announced. However, Hackl mentioned that it is likely to come out within the next few weeks.
