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Monday, April 18, 2011

The hills are alive with the sound of informatics

Much of what we've discussed all semester with regards to computers strengths and weaknesses with processing text or graphics can also be said for music or sound data. Music informatics is the field of study which uses both the tools of both music and informatics. Researchers are trying to find the best ways to determine if two pieces of music are related using the computer or determine the genre of music. Two music informatics research pages illustrate the breadth of music informatics:

http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/organisation/doc/research/mi/
http://www.music.informatics.indiana.edu/student_research.html

One example of the successful commercial use of music informatics is the Listen or Shazam apps for the iPhone.

On the HCI side, information systems can be developed which help people read music or help people practice music better by training their ears or by improving their intonation on fretless instruments, for example.