After texting, photomessaging, and web surfing, the latest cellphone talent is set to be enabling people to "jam" together to improvise music, say software engineers in London, UK reports New Scientist.
The idea is the brainchild of computer interactivity expert Nick Bryan-Kinns and his colleagues at Queen Mary College. They have developed software that let will groups of people phone into a mobile number and work together to improvise short, looping tunes. The QMC team hope people will be able to engage with their friends in the same way jazz musicians appear to "mentally connect" when jamming. Hmmmm. Their Java-based software, called daisyphone, looks like a floral join-the-dots puzzle (see picture). Unlike a musical stave's horizontal sequence of notes, the daisy's circular design "reinforces the looping nature of the music," says Bryan-Kinns. The tempo is set by the speed at which a 'radar arm' rotates around the daisy. As the arm passes over coloured shapes placed on the dotted petals, musical sound samples - such as piano, flute or snare drum - are played. http://gouda.dcs.qmul.ac.uk/
