Turn Your Phone Into Any Musical Instrument With This Cool Accessory

Kickstarter of the Week is a column which looks at a new crowdfunded project each week that you can back on sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. We've seen that some of the coolest new developments in recent times - such as the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, and the Pebble smartwatch - have come out of the world of crowdfunding instead of the big companies. We're on the lookout for the potential game-changers, but we also try and point out fun projects that might be cool to back.

Of course, the project you back might not get funded, and even if it does, it might not ship. With that caveat in place, we're still fans of the concept, and that's because it has led to so many interesting new gadgets.

One such gadget is the Artiphon INSTRUMENT 1, a cool accessory that can turn your iPhone or iPad into any musical instrument.

The device looks like a guitar's neck, and it is a MIDI compatible accessory that will work with apps like Garageband (it connects to your device via the lightning cable) and will work with MIDI tools such as ProTools on your PC or Mac, connected via USB. You can strum it like a guitar, play it like a piano, use it to play drums, whatever you want. The simple design lends itself to multiple uses, and since it comes with built-in speakers, the audio won't come from the speakers on your mobile, but right from under your hands.

Since it can work with any app that includes MIDI support, the two-foot accessory can be used in a number of different ways as well, from creating music in Garageband to autoplaying notes so kids can get a feel for playing a real instrument.

In the video, you can see it set to guitar, used for strumming in Garageband. The setting is changed to piano, and the same accessory is laid flat across your lap and played instead. You can even assign different instruments to each "string", which means you could create hybrid instruments if you wanted to, and pressure sensitive controls and a built-in accelerometer to simulate something like stroking a violin resting on your shoulder.

According to the Kickstarter page, the developers are still working on Android support, but they've tested it and it works in an experimental setting, so hopefully Android support will follow soon.

You can see it in action in the video below:

The project has already crossed it's $75,000 target (approximately Rs. 46.7 lakh), raising over $980,000 at the time of writing (approximately Rs. 61.2 lakh), but is still accepting funds until April 13. You can back the project now for $350 (approximately Rs. 21,750), and get one Artiphon INSTRUMENT 1. The estimated delivery is for January 2016, with worldwide delivery.

To see more from the world of crowdfunding, see our previous Kickstarter of the Week stories.