Our research showed that school music programs are constantly in danger of being cut from shrinking budgets. In fact, many school systems will have no music specialists serving elementary schools within the next year—children are not being introduced to the joy of making music.

We understand that while not all people have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, everyone has a song in their heart. If we could create an instrument that anyone could play, and was inexpensive and easy to setup in various locations, we could introduce children to musical creation.

We prototyped, tested, failed and prototyped again. Using custom OpenFrameworks software, we created an instrument that transforms the human body into a multi-faceted musical instrument.

Each time a person enters the Music Box, our Microsoft Kinect motion-based technology and infrared sensors track their unique body and movements, and then use the data to create a audio/visual performance.

The sound, projection, and skeletal tracking reacts to each person as he or she continues to move, resulting in an interactive instrument that anyone can play.

Our goal is to make musical education easier and more accessible for kids everywhere. At the world’s biggest music awards event, we created an amazing blend of movement, data, light, and sound, allowing more than 3,000 kids and their parents to create music using only their bodies.

For three days at LA Live (The home of the Grammy’s), we partnered with musical instructors from the School of Rock who acted as brand ambassadors and educators, engaging people with Microsoft technology in a cool new way.

Microsoft was applauded on social media and technology blogs around the world. Interest and feedback on the installation was so positive that we are now in the process of creating Music Boxes for retail stores, Microsoft campuses and Innovation centers globally.