The BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones has written a rather stimulating post about Chirp. It uses a shortcode broadcast via sound to broadcast images and data to smartphones that are listening.
The implications of this kind of technology could be far reaching. For instance, you could easily be ‘pushed’ particular sets of data when you’re on-site in a shopping mall or sports complex.
Could this finally replace the medium of Bluetooth for sending pictures to each other?
Or is this a solution looking for a problem? 😉
Have a read (and watch via the BBC site):
An app that transmits data via a burst of "digital birdsong" aims to simplify the way users share images and other files between smartphones.Chirp plays a two-second long noise that sounds as if it was made by a robotic bird. When heard by other devices it triggers a download.
via BBC News – Chirp app sends smartphone data via digital birdsong.
it’s just sending urls from device to device, not the content or files themselves. this is more like how people tend to implement qr codes. except proprietary. and closed.
Right. It needs substantial critical mass doesn’t it? And the phone needs to be listening in order for it to work.
It would also require some level of silence, close distance and both devices conected online, and a cloud service running! Not a very simple and robust system.