News: Little Boxes Turns Your iPad into an Old-Fashioned Music Box

Technology is awesome. You can use your iPad to record music or even turn your tunes into a solar system, but sometimes being plugged in all of the time can leave you nostalgic for simpler times. This new concept by Joelle Aeschlimann brings together the best of both worlds by turning your iPad into an old-fashioned, hand-cranked music box.

The artist created three different music boxes, each one with its own unique song and visualization. The music boxes were made using wooden cylinders with a metal strip in the middle to make them conductive.

On the bottom are two rubber tips, taken from pens (yes, the kind you write with), with a spring to help adapt the pressure for the iPad.

Finally, the crank is attached to the top.

The application recognizes the different music boxes by the distances between the rubber tips, so what you hear and see is determined by which music box you use.

You can see Little Boxes in action in the video below.

Inventions like this that combine digital and analog, old-school and cutting edge, are becoming more and more popular. There's even a camera that spits out descriptions instead of photos. In the spirit of this trend, what would you like to see combined?