This article was taken from the July 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Forget Google Goggles -- this is the Google marimba, one of eight devices that make up the Universal Orchestra Experiment. Made by Google's Creative Lab, it's on display at the London Science Museum this July, but you can play it from anywhere in the world over the internet.
Four of the instruments, including a kalimba and a vibraphone, can be played at the museum by using a tablet device; the marimba is played via the website. "When the museum shuts for the day, all eight instruments can be played online," says project leader Jayme Goldstein. "We've taken the eight-hours-a-day museum and thrown it open."
The orchestra is one of five experiments in the Google Web Lab exhibition. Others include the Data Tracer, which shows how information spreads over the internet, and sketchbots which draw visitors' portraits into sand.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
