ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) - The iPhone's potential as a musical instrument is on display at the University of Michigan this week.

The Ann Arbor school is hosting a concert by the Michigan Mobile Phone Ensemble on Wednesday night.

It's the culmination of a semester's work by students in what could be the world's first academic course in the use of cell phones as musical instruments.

Musical groups using cell phones have performed at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., and at the Helsinki University of Technology in Finland.

The teacher is computer scientist and musician Georg Essl.

Turning an iPhone into a musical instrument starts with programming it to play back as sound information it gets from one of its many sensors.

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On the Net:

Michigan Mobile Phone Ensemble: http://mopho.eecs.umich.edu

Video: http://tinyurl.com/ykcpz88
     
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