( CNN ) -- Air guitar players , bus stop drummers and office desk virtuosos , rejoice : being a slave to the rhythm has just become a lot more fun . Mogees is a new technology that turns any object into a musical instrument , by converting the vibrations you make when you touch it into sound . Here 's how it works : you stick a small sensor to the surface you want to play with , be it a tree or a fruit bowl or your bathtub , and then connect it to your smartphone . An app running on it detects and analyzes the vibrations , transforming them into musical notes . The sound can then be amplified by hooking up the smartphone to headphones or speakers . `` The sound you hear is really coming from the object , it 's not a virtual reconstruction , '' says Bruno Zamborlin , the 30-year-old music technology researcher who invented the device . `` It 's a principle called physically inspired sound system . When you play a real instrument , like a guitar , the sound is created by the combination of an exciter and a resonator . The exciter is the plectrum in your hand that hits the strings , and the resonator is the combination of the strings and the body of the guitar . Mogees works in a similar way : everything that is picked up by the sensor -- your gestures , the object itself -- is the exciter , and the resonator is emulated through the software . We just modify the signal to respect musical rules . We augment it . '' The name of the device is a geeky reference to its functionality : it stands for `` Modal Gestural Surface . '' Nothing is random : if you make the same gesture twice , you get the same sound . Through the app , you can select the musical notes and timbres that you want it to associate to your gestures . Sounds complicated ? `` Mogees is designed to be immediately pleasant and fun to play for anyone , '' Zamborlin told CNN , `` but at the same time it leaves room for improvement and virtuosity . '' The default setting for the system is the `` Free mode '' : you select a musical scale and the frequency of the vibrations that you create is mapped to one specific note on that scale . Alternatively , you can use `` Song mode '' , which entails uploading a song in the form of a MIDI file onto your phone : each time you touch your designated object , you play a note from your song . Mogees had a successful Kickstarter earlier this year , and subsequently secured additional private funding to the tune of Â£1 million . The first units have already been delivered to backers . And Zamborlin has racked up some field tests with pre-production prototypes : . `` In New Delhi I met a sword swallower who stuck it on top of his sword and proceeded to play it with the piercing on his tongue : it produced a really high frequency , eerie sound . A French researcher emailed me saying he was going to the Amazon forest for a month and wanted a couple of Mogees to show to the local tribes . Dancers play it with their feet . And I 've seen people just attach it to a ping pong table to 'sonify ' their game . I like being surprised . '' A musical enthusiast himself -- he pauses mid-sentence to marvel at the sound of a nearby Mogees playing a song by Kraftwerk , the German pioneers of electronic music -- Zamborlin has performed publicly several times with the device , most recently playing alongside British electronic duo Plaid at London 's Roundhouse , a venue that has hosted the likes of The Doors and Jimi Hendrix . On stage , he had surrounded himself with items reminiscent of a playground : a slide , a tree , a metal fence , and some scaffolding arranged to spell the word `` play '' . At one point he used a wooden chair , gently caressing it as if trying to convince it to produce the perfect note . `` I 'm trying to add some visual and performative aspect to electronic music . I want it to go back to the real world and be physically performed , with the advantages of digital technology coupled with the gestures of acoustic instruments . We 're witnessing a spring of augmented reality and embedded technology , and this concept can be applied to music as well : I wish to inspire people to see objects in a novel way . '' Other musicians are using or plan to use the device . Among them , French electronic composer Jean Michel Jarre , the Mexican acoustic duo Rodrigo y Gabriela , and English songwriter Imogen Heap . But Zamborlin is also eager to see how regular users will employ it , and he plans to update the software accordingly , while keeping an open stance : . `` This project is about not telling people what to do , '' he says , `` There are no rules with this technology . I want people to just look around and find their own inspiration . All I 'm going to do is try to make their experience better . '' Read more from Make , Create , Innovate : . Can levitating appliances take off ? The Chairless Chair , an invisible chair that you can wear . Music 'hackers ' unleash new generation of cool and bizarre instruments .
Mogees is a new technology that turns any object into a musical instrument . It works by picking up vibrations and transforming them into notes . It was funded through Kickstarter and the first production units have been delivered .