Today’s mobile media landscape is one that continues to grow and evolve, as various factors like technology and society interact to create a shifting, rolling plain upon which the development of mobile media undulates. Technology keeps introducing new ways to compress music and voice into ever-shrinking files that maintain a faithful sound, while society keeps coming up with new acts and artists to make media of, mobile and otherwise. To that end, we have come up with various means to integrate music and other media into out mobile experience, and one of the foremost and most enduring ways has to be the mobile ringtone.
The ringtone is an interesting creature – having grown from the social urge to showcase and share one’s individuality while maximizing the available technological means, it has lasted the test of time and has been around for about as long as the mobile phone itself. While having lessened its financial impact on the mobile industry somewhat in recent years, the ringtone has remained a popular concept that now has mobile users getting more and more tech-savvy in order to keep their phones up to date with the newest portable music snippets to announce their incoming calls and messages to them anywhere, be it on the road or at home.
However, “anywhere” is a concept typically limited by accepted social conventions, one of which is the need to turn off one’s mobile or set it to silent mode before watching a movie or concert performance lest the incoming ringtones disrupt everyone’s aural enjoyment. Interestingly, though, a recent development has suggested that leaving it on at an orchestra performance might be more beneficial – provided, however, that it’s an iPhone running a particular program that can “listen” to the live performance and display relevant music information on the phone’s screen. Computer scientists at the Drexel University have developed a musical resonance program that can, for instance, indicate that a trumpet fanfare is the next upcoming segment, or tell you why a minor key is forthcoming.
Drexel and the Philadelphia Orchestra have been working together to some extent to develop this tool, which could be an effective orchestra gateway for modern masses who are unfamiliar with the technical niceties of orchestral music. Violinist Philip Kates, one of about two dozen orchestra representatives sent to the Drexel campus, called it “a very exciting technology,” after witnessing the program in action as it identified the beginning and end of a cadenza and provided definitions and reference links for those who wanted to know more about that improvisational violin solo. The program also provided live information about the hero Don Quixote during a performance of Strauss’ work, also explaining that the tuba and contrabassoon parts echoed the snores of Quixote’s sidekick Sancho Pancha.
The program was originally the brainchild of Drexel assistant professor youngmoo Kim, who decided to create something akin to a museum’s portable audio guide [sans audio, naturally] that helped audiences better appreciate an orchestral piece using their iPhone. The program, as such, takes snapshots of the music every 1/3 of a second, analyzing each segment of the audio signal and comparing it to a reference recording. So far it’s only been tested on SpectiCast-provided hi-def broadcasts of orchestra performances, but more could yet be on the horizon.
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