Help interfacing with a unique sensor I can't determine

I am working on a way to wire a Fisher Price bright beats smart touch play... Thing to an Arduino in order to make the sensors trigger drum sounds instead of the standard piano sounds it currently does. I can't find anything online about the board it uses- PT-CFM96 but it does look like this might be the only of their toys that utilizes it. In any case, it has this wire rigged up under each pad that is supposed to detect when your hand is close to it but the plastic cover has always made it really inconsistent. Once I removed the plastic cover it works perfect so when I reassemble it I will be cutting a channel in the plastic to help it detect your hands easier.

This should be fairly straightforward to wire to the Arduino but the problem is I have never seen this wire rig before to know how to try and work with it:

https://m.imgur.com/7UxMyfX?r

Any ideas what it could be? And am I correct in thinking it should be pretty simple to address from a pin on the Arduino?

Can you see any identification on the IC? Any other ICs on the other side?

Unfortunately not. I just added a picture to the album that shows the backside of one of the boards and there is nothing that helps identify it. The main PCB has nothing of value in it either from what I can see.

Actually, looks like it might be this:

Looks like it would be worth wiring it up to a capacitor and see what happens!

Instructables are notorious for the many errors (and apparently no way to point them out in the comments or so). Great for inspiration, but if you want to learn things make sure you read a number of instructables, as the majority that is in agreement is probably correct.

The image it includes is quite scary, though. That's a 240V AC plug, apparently held together with some electric tape, and a non-standard wire coming out of it.

Use with utmost care and diligence!

Yeah the box being made there is sketchy as hell! I was referencing it strictly as an example of the type of sensor that is being used in this toy. For that part fortunately I don't need to worry to much since Arduino supports it on the pins without any scary electrical trickery. For now I am just going to try wiring up one of the sensors and see if I can get any reading from it.