Walking Music for Everyone!

October 18th, 2006

Well, Tommy, they finally did it. It finally happened, and we weren’t there for it. Tommy and I had this idea when we were kids that people should have a soundtrack for themselves when they walk. I’m sure the idea came from video games where there is always background music for no apparent reason. Now there is a wearable computer called PersonalSoundtrack that plays music from a playlist based on your current walking speed. Minor variations in speed are measured and the music speed is dynamically adjusted to match your footsteps. If a deliberate speed change is detected then a faster, more speed-appropriate song is started. I think I would have the slow Peter and the Wolf song for slow walking. I don’t know about fast walking, though. There are so many possibilities it would be difficult to choose just one.

The hardware and software upon which this is built is open source and there is a section for source code on the web site. I’m assuming this will become an open source project soon. This would be a fun project and a great way to annoy people and have fun at the same time.

2 Responses to “Walking Music for Everyone!”

  1. Tommy says:

    Shawn! Thats sweet! It would definitely be hard to choose though. I always thought it would be fun to walk to funk. You can’t help but walk in step. In an unrelated thought, do you remember the song paperclip man by the Zimmermann brothers? I just talked to Danny about that and we hashed out the lyrics again.

  2. Shawn Dowler says:

    “He hold your papers… together.”

    Of course I remember Paperclip Man! It still pops into my head now and then. You should do a “remix” with real drums!

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