One Song, Multiple Smartphones, All At The Same Time
What’s the Latest Development?
At this year’s Imagine Cup finals competition in St. Petersburg, the first prize in innovation went to a team of students from the UK’s Exeter University whose app, soundSYNK, can play a song on multiple smartphones and other devices simultaneously. It works through a so-called “artificial mesh network” to allow the creation of what team member Rob Parker calls “hyper-local social networks.” So far, it’s been tested on 75 devices, and will get an even larger venue at next month’s Reading Festival, which is expected to draw up to 80,000 people.
What’s the Big Idea?
Sponsored by Microsoft, the Imagine Cup invites student teams from around the world to present creative technology solutions. Not surprisingly, Exeter team member Alex Bochenski said they got the idea for soundSYNK at a party. “[W]e wanted to have a little rave but the volume was not sufficient…[so] we did the age-old technique of lining up all of our phones, laptops, tablets and trying to play the song at the same time.” Their entry, which beat out those from Slovenian and Thai competitors, will be available for all platforms in August.
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