10. The Floating Opera

Getting our minds out of the gutter, we should take a moment to talk about music. As our eyes are treated to hyper-real tricks and delights, so too will our ears. We’ve talked about synthesized sounds used to support the visual illusions created on our displays, but sound would be in no way subservient to sight in this system.

Say there are two friends. They've connected on Facebook or something like it, so their devices understand that they know one another. Now when either of them switches into "social mode," they can see each other’s location on GPS in hopes of meeting up. Cell phones already do this and we talked about it earlier.
But with this device we can take social presence to a new level. Say these friends met at a concert. In their minds they might associate their friendship with whatever song or band was playing at the time, since it accompanied their initial meeting. Now their devices were “listening” at the moment when they started talking and has turned this song into a sort of sonic friendship motive. When the devices sense that they're within 500 feet of one another, it might play a clip of this song very faintly into the corresponding side of their headphones. As they get closer, the song becomes louder. If they were listening to different music before, the system simply mixes the motive into the background like an audio mash-up. As friends spend more time together, more and more songs are associated with their relationship and can be added for variety. In this way, people gain real time, real life theme songs, like Wagnerian Leitmotives or theme songs. We’ve brought cinema to the street.

When three or more friends are together it might mix all of their profiled motives together at once, transposing and altering the music automatically to make it fit together in a pleasing harmony. Imagine walking toward a 10,000 person event on campus and hearing small clips of melodies letting you know exactly which of your friends are also present, all without lifting a finger- an almost subconscious reminder. And in the same way that people choose music for their online profiles on Myspace and similar sites, they would choose one or a number of songs to associate with their new moving profile. We'll have created a walking Myspace.
In another situation we're in a group hanging out on the street. Our devices know we're together talking. Suddenly one of the more inebriated amongst us breaks out into song- a drunken rendition of the latest top 40 hit. His device quickly runs a song recognition on what he's singing to identify a possible match, based on what it knows he's listened to lately and in the past [remember, it's hearing what he hears on a daily basis, keeping track the whole time]. Before he's hit the second chorus, it's figured out that he's quoting the latest T-Pain song, although a bit too slow, out of tune and in a different key. Nonetheless, like any good accompanist, the machine tries to follow his singing- it tries to make him sound as good as possible. To accomplish this, it transposes into the tempo and key he's set.
As this happens, everyone in the group hears an accompanying melody fade into what he's singing in real time. Like a live musical or a constant karaoke machine, this device adds acoustic background to whatever it hears. Life becomes a movie as simply hanging out with friends takes on cinematic effects.

So just imagine this same scene but with everyone wearing glasses and headphones. The effect would be the same. He would start singing, the device would recognize the song, and each of us would hear an orchestral accompaniment in real life. There could also be visuals- perhaps his shirt could turn golden in a rotoscopic effect, like an old Disney movie.

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And now we have lyrics being displayed, so that everyone can sing along. Even though it’s possible, it might be hard to imagine this actually catching on, however stranger things have worked. One look at the tectonic dance battle in France dispels any doubt- and they're already wearing glasses...

So instead of having to use a boom box, these groups would set up a temporary "station" which could be tuned in to by everyone in the group and curious passers-by. And the park would still be pleasant for those not wanting to listen, like a silent rave.
And there are more applications than I can list. Ambient noises such as birdsong could be woven into more distinct harmonies of moving thirds and a coherent musical structure as you walked through the park, or even be added if they weren't in a singing mood. Voices could be doubled or echoed to make them sound fuller, more star like. The constant brush of wind could be turned into the faint pitches of a melody. Rain could be the same. Listening to a song on the beach, the tempo could automatically change to match the pulse of the tide.

This is a really basic contemporary version, which shows that people want it, and that it’s possible: "RjDj Album is one of the most interesting music apps available for the iPhone. Instead of other apps offering you different music to listen to, RjDj helps you create music based on your environment. ….Try talking into the mic or putting it next to objects that make weird sounds, like fans. Even better, use it as you walk down a busy street, you'll get a great feel for it that way."

Combining this with speech recognition, while hanging out in a group, certain triggers could tell the device to provide an echo or instant replay of what someone just said to emphasize an important joke or point. Imagine if things were repeated in real time when many people comment at once, or if there were a great pause, or when volume changes. If it got really advanced at "listening" to the conversation, the device could understand when important rhetorical points had been stated and repeat them in the audience's earpieces or keep track of them on their displays. It might actually help to keep discussions on track, which is very strange to think about....This is like an audio version of what we talked about earlier involving the voyeuristic construction workers and the instant replay montage.