The University Of Michigan is holding a concert this week by the Michigan Mobile Phone Ensemble and this is an attempt to showcase the musical abilities of the iPhone. This concert is no techno babble as most would think it to be. To your surprise this is what the students have created for their semester’s work. This is the first course by any university that has allowed the use of cell phones as musical instruments. Georg Essl who is a computer scientist and also works in Michigan’s engineering as well as musical schools said, “The mobile phone is a very nice platform for exploring new forms of musical performance. We can do listening, weird and unusual things.” Not long ago a few other scientists along with Essl had tried to use the microphone as a sensory wind device and also allow the use of Ocarina which is a popular iPhone application. Nicole Casal Moore who is the University’s spokeswoman wrote on the school’s website, “Ocarina essentially turns the phone into an ancient type of flute.” Converting the iPhone into a music generating instruments needs it to be programmed so that it gets sound information from its various sensors. Moore goes on to say, “The touch-screen, microphone, GPS, compass, wireless sensor and accelerometer can all be transformed so that when you run your finger across the display, blow air into the mike, tilt or even shake the phone, for example, different sounds emanate.” Essl mentioned that this is a culmination of technology and creativity that the students have to display all at once, and goes on to say, “To make technology interesting, you also have to engage with the musicality.”
News Source : - http://www.iphone-scoop.com/