Color Band: New iPad app lets you play music on your banana (or anything else)

Having trouble mastering the violin or the saxophone? Maybe you should consider taking up the banana.

A new app for iPad called Color Band will apparently musical-ize any household item you can draw, using the iPad's rear camera as a sensor. Behold, the future of rock and roll:

Makes me wonder if Jay-Z's next album will be released in conjunction with Chiquita.

The ability to transform anything in your home into a percussive instrument is but one of many features of Color Band, which was profiled by the technology blog TechCrunch earlier Monday. The app also lets your kids (or you!) draw any instrument on the iPad's screen and then play it by waving your hand in front of the iPad's front-facing camera. There is also a bunny rabbit named "Lalabee" who can dance along on screen to the tunes you create.

Mostly, though, I'm excited to turn my coffee cup, and my co-workers, into musical instruments that I can play all day long. Sit still, Grant!

The idea that anything and everything in your domain could be used to make music isn't new. Disney's Research team last year teased a similar idea called Botanicus Interacticus, which allowed anyone to play a common houseplant as a musical instrument. You may also remember Drawdio, a high-tech pencil that allowed you to draw musical instruments on paper, effectively turning your doodles into miniature, low-tech theremins. 

Color Band, however, may be the first available app to take advantage of a smart device's camera to musicalize store-bought fruit (If there's been another one, let me know in the comments or email me). It's a neat idea, though obviously it will live or die by the accuracy of the camera.

You can read more about Color Band at TechCrunch, or you can download the app for free right here.