CS News:
The Soundtrack to Your Life
“What music do I want to hear?” That’s often the first question smartphone users ask themselves after plugging in their earbuds. But instead of having to flick through their lists of albums and artists, they may soon be able to turn to Musical Heart, an app graduate student Shahriar Nirjon is developing. From songs already on the smartphone, Musical Heart generates a soundtrack that fits the moment.
Musical Heart illustrates the potential of cyberphysical systems to improve our quality of life by making the physical environment that much more responsive to our needs. Nirjon has developed a set of algorithms that combine the heartbeat and motion data generated by tiny infrared sensors and accelerometers in Musical Heart earphones with locational data from in-phone GPS receivers. The result is an in-the-moment, contextual profile of the user’s activity level.
Putting together this information, Musical Heart can determine if the listener is driving up a mountain pass in the Rockies or jogging around the local college track. Then, using a commercially available program to analyze the tempo, pitch and energy of available music, it selects the tracks that best suit the occasion.
“Whether I am traveling or relaxing, I could never find the appropriate music to listen to,” Nirjon says. “That’s why I decided to develop Musical Heart. The heart wants to hear something, but our music players don’t understand the need.”
Users can also turn to Musical Heart to select music that will optimize their heartbeat for a particular workout. Because it stores heart rate data and music from previous sessions, Musical Heart can build a playlist from songs that work best for individual users. “The app statistically rates the tracks based on how effective the tracks were in helping an individual reach a desired heart rate goal at a particular activity level,” says Nirjon. “We’ve designed Musical Heart to be convenient, noninvasive, low-cost and — above all — personalized.”
Read more about the Musical Heart here.