[CEATEC 2010] Yamaha was showing its infosound demo at CEATEC. The prototype embeds data in audio media like music, video clips, radio or whichever audio support that you can think of. The principle is very simple: Yamaha encodes data in audio frequencies that you can’t hear. If you could hear it, it would most likely resemble a Fax/Modem sound. On the show floor, Yamaha had an iPhone app called “infosound” (Japanese app store only) that would decode the sound and turn it into data. For instance, the data in this particular demo was a song ID that could then be used to look up additional info about the song/album via a web service. Because the data rate is very small (about 80 bits per seconds), Yamaha typically recommends encoding very small things like a number or a short string of text. There are a lot of possibilities ranging from broadcasting coupons, URLs or indoors location information, but who knows what will make it to the market. Right now, Yamaha is looking for business partners. The only thing that we don’t know yet is: can animals/insects hear those sounds or are they so high-frequency that they would not? The last thing that I want is my cat to listen to this and wake up saying “I know kung fu”, lol.
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