The University of Michigan’s “Building a Mobile Phone Ensemble” course has put together an interesting show by using modified iPhone’s as musical instrument.

Basically, to build an instrument on an iPhone, they programmed the device to play back as sound information it receives from one if its multitude of sensors. The touch-screen, microphone, GPS, compass, wireless sensor and accelerometer were all transformed or modified so when you run your finger across the display, blow air into the mic, tilt or shake the phone, different sounds emanate.

Building a Mobile Phone Ensemble, is probably the first such course in the world.

Georg Essl, a computer scientist and musician who has been driving the development of mobile phones as musical instruments stated:

In order to come up with a creative piece you have to engage with the technology, but in order to make technology interesting, you also have to engage with the musicality. These are really hard to separate. We’re trying to teach both.

You can watch the video here