Now Playing: the YouTube Symphony Orchestra Augmented Reality Experiment

The YouTube Symphony Orchestra is built on technology and innovation–musicians audition by uploading videos of themselves performing, and then YouTube viewers select who they want to participate in the live-streamed performance. Yesterday the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 performed their Grand Finale Concert* from the Sydney Opera House, which was live-streamed around the world on YouTube.

Even though the performance is now over, the music and innovation continues! The 2011 YouTube Symphony Orchestra's Augmented Reality “Experiment” is an interactive way for fans to make some music of their own. By waving an easily made marker in front of a webcam, users can create and record music on a virtual instrument, then share their creations with friends. This virtual instrument was created as a collaboration between YouTube, Tellart, and Hyundai, and in the spirit of innovation, the software for the performance interface (the augmented reality application that actually makes the music) is now open source. You can now download the source and build an augmented reality instrument of your own. More details are available on the YTSO AR Instrument Project website.

By Ellen Ko, Open Source Team

*The performance was accompanied by sophisticated projections on the interior and the exterior on the iconic sails. A helicopter was used to laser map the sails in 3D to make it happen!