Chirp sends information from one smartphone to another, using electronic birdsong

[Video Link] Nicolas Pergola of Chirp says

We're a spinout from University College London Computer Science and we've developed a new data transfer application for smartphones (and more) called Chirp.

This is our thing - a technology inspired by birdsong and the principles of biomimicry.

We think it's pretty exciting since the app has great potential, although it's just the tip of the iceberg. Our plans include teaching the machines to sing.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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technogeekagain

Oh Gee; we’ve just reinvented the soft modem. All that’s really new about this is that they’re only using it to transfer a URI, with actual data transfer taking place via a backend webserver.

Be sure to check how much security they’re promising on that backend server. They *could* encrypt, but I’m betting it hasn’t occurred to them to do so.
- puppybeard
  
  I think it’s a cute idea and implementation, but yeah, you hit the nail on the head. Also it must require that the receiving device be actively processing sounds to receive it, which is just clunky.
  
  It solves no problem whatsoever, how they got spun out I don’t know.
peterkvt80

Signalling with audio tones? Why not run a modem through the speaker then you might get 56kb out of it.
FoolishOwl

Fair point about it being basically a modem, but there’s something to be said for style.
Bearpaw01

Sending data via electric signals through a wire? Isn’t that called “telegraphs”?

Transmitting information with light? Why not just use heliographs?

Communication with radio waves? Meh, they did a hundred years ago.
simonbarsinister

We don’t bump to transfer data anymore? I’m always behind on these things…
- http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
  
  We’re taking these anti-plague measures a bit far
jimkirk

Looks like they’re not transmitting much data. Sort of like a QR code, they just chirp a link to the chirp server which the recipient can then go to. And what happens when the chirp server is down?

“The audio engine tries to decode the sequence of notes into a sequence of letters which our server understands. The server then returns a link to the user so they can go wherever the short code points: to a webpage, say.”
Boundegar

All your technical analyses overlook one thing: R2D2!!!
http://www.facebook.com/people/George-Herbert/100001916116969 George Herbert

I invented this in the late 1980s, and nearly got in trouble for putting out a fake Apple press release for the new “AppleSquawk” product…
Dave X

Sounds great until some avian mastermind uses our technology against us. Hiding in our bunkers, they’ll finally make a decisive strike on the world’s sunflower supply…
- wafna
  
  my first thought: wait’ll the mockingbirds get wind of this.
morcheeba

Acoustic couplers are cool again, then, right?
- Tynam
  
  Acoustic couplers were always cool.
http://www.jhhl.net/ Henry Lowengard

I wrote a little program on the Apple II to play the answer tones to an acoustic modem across the room back in 1980. But more recently, I’ve had a 5 channel audio “chirping” app in the iOs app store for months now. http://www.jhhl.net/iPhone/Banshee. It originally has a mosquito mode for transmitting with audio to high in pitch for us old timers to hear, but I brought down the frequency ranges somewhat.
http://profile.yahoo.com/TPFHW75JJFOC64QFMHBKQZ73DY Erica

Brilliant! If it works like a modem, then it gets a whole new meaning in the age of mobile phones. This adds new possibilities to the way we use existing technologies.
waetherman

To be fair, there is an interesting idea behind this, and some utility. While it doesn’t make much sense on a 1-to-1 basis (other tech is probably better) in a 1-to-many situation it actually makes sense. Rather than reading out a URL, gathering email addresses of a bunch of people in a room, etc this is a way to “broadcast” a bit of data like a picture or URL – think of it like an audio bitly or QR code, Sure, the situations where it might be handy are limited, but it isn’t completely pointless.
TheKaz1969

I got one of these, and now I got f%cking birds spamming me with senseless messages…
http://www.bytehead.org/blog/ Bryan “bytehead” Price

Yeah, it’s the modem version of a CueCat, without the hardware dongle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat
bobcorrigan

Soon, our novel NEW technology will ASTOUND the world of MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS.

Introducing. . . SMELL-O-DATA.
madsci

Oddly enough, I just popped in while taking a break from redesigning a device that actually *does* send pictures using sound, which is not a new thing at all. I recently got to meet a couple of guys who pioneered the field of slow-scan television after WWII – truly impressive stuff when the only image storage available was in cathode ray tubes. They were transferring low-resolution grayscale images in about 8 seconds back then.

Designing a modem to sound pleasing to the ear does present some interesting challenges, but they’ve got the advantage of only needing to send a few bytes of data at a time. A dozen bytes would be enough for as large a database of URLs as you’d ever need, with room for error detection and correction. Presumably they’re using FSK with tones selected to not sound too harsh.

Calling it biomimicry is purely a marketing ploy. It’s a modem, and not a particularly novel one from the sound of it.

EDIT: I just checked over their technical summary, and to their credit they’re not trying to pass it off as something it’s not, and they’re pretty open with the details. It’s basically early 1960s technology, but making it work easily with MIDI sequencers is kind of clever.
That_Anonymous_Coward

You all laugh now, just wait until Rumblefish claims ownership of your chirp.

*waits for you to go work the Google because this is a trip down memory lane*
taghag

it doesn’t have to be new technology to be cool. re-purposing old and out-dated protocols and tech to work on our new toys with a new story behind it can be a wonderful thing. i saw chirp a few days ago and it started a whole conversation about transferring data thought sound, which of course turned into an educative discussion about the history of computing.

anything that can evoke a sense of wonder is fine by me! :)
Jonbly Herbert

Sorry I’m late, but a pigeon hacked my iPhone to order some birdseed…
Chentzilla

If anything can send these tones, then why is it an iPhone app only?
http://profile.yahoo.com/XIXEUDFWYE5TGM5WV7WF7BYJJ4 Katie

This is totally, totally brilliant.

Nobody seems to have noticed you can download the app and ‘chirp’ pictures to your phone from the video.

Seriously cool idea – doors blown open.
http://profile.yahoo.com/RJEFYV4EVY7YSDYRSJK6DRHMAY Sarah

I have been ‘chirping’ a bit with people at the office. Imagine it working to ‘broadcast’ data over the phone or radio, etc.
puppybeard

All the haters are missing a trick: get an aviary of lyre birds, and use them as intermediaries.

You’d be living in a Game of Thrones / Web 9.0 crossover-dreamworld in no time.
http://twitter.com/AwesomeRobot AwesomeRobot

I like the idea for transmitting data to groups — you could play something like this over a loudspeaker and distribute a link to anyone within earshot.

Though, of course they’d all have to have the app and you may get more of an audience by just saying a human rememberable link… but the idea is cute.
kwhitefoot

I hope the rest of it is better than their understanding of Bluetooth. They claim: “Unlike Bluetooth, Chirp doesn’t require you to pair devices” That would make more sense if it said: “Just like Bluetooth, Chirp doesn’t require you to pair devices”.
Bluetooth only requires pairing if you want to allow the other device to browse or control your device. If all you want to do is send a file then the recipient simply accepts it. Of course, they seem to be Apple fans so they probably don’t understand how easy Bluetooth is for the rest of the world. One of my colleagues took a picture of me with his iPhone and offered to send it to me, I said “Go ahead, my mobile’s Bluetooth id is x” but he couldn’t do that, he could only email it to me.
James Penrose

Oh good, walk by a mockingbird and reformat your hard drive? :)

Or have your canary rebroadcast your link to http://www.iliketeenbondage.com every time someone is in the room.