Kazoo, a wind instrument that adds a “buzzing” timbral quality to a player’s voice, may not be that popular among smartphone users but its 21st version called iKazoo has a chance to get some love from this community. It keeps the basic form factor (though slightly modified), allowing anyone (not just professionals to use it for music playback, and also for many other things. Thanks to the built-in camera, microphone and a number of sensors, iKazoo can be used for music, games, art, sports and fitness.
The complete surface of the device is touch and shock sensitive so you can tap on different positions with different intensity to get a super drum computer of beat box. Moreover, if you just hold the iKazoo in your hand the built in microphone can record and alter your voice, while the tunes you have created before are automatically looped.
Then there’s the built-in Arduino platform equipped with optical and motion sensors, enabling new kind of gaming experiences…
We could imagine iKazoo being used in a number of different settings, but the problem is in the software. If it doesn’t launches with few neat apps, it’s destined for failure. iKazoo will be available in mid-2013 and by then we’re hoping few interesting apps will be developed as well. We’ll let you know if we hear something new on this…