Don’t you love it when you’re listening to your music - whether it’s in the car, when walking around, or on a run - and the perfect song comes on. I was at the Gym yesterday and twice the perfect song came on; Rabba (Techno Mix) from Musafir when I was on the treadmill. Perfect because it starts off slow for a slower pace on the treadmill and then builds up to a high BPM track ideal for running and building up your heart rate. Secondly, as soon as I stepped out of the gym, the Norwegian Recycling mashup 8 Become 1 came on which if you listen to is perfect to chill you out a bit, perfect for a walk back home in chilly weather.

This got me thinking what if we had mp3 players that would play and/or recommend music intelligently. Music could be played either from a defined playlist, the entire library or even online libraries. Maybe even from last.fm. The track selection could be based on a variety of factors.

1. Heart Rate

If the music player can monitor the heart rate of the user and and play music based on that. High intensity activities like running, jogging or even ab crunches could feature fast paced music. While sitting by the lake could give me a more mellow soundtrack.

2. Accelerometer

A lot of the phones these days come built in with accelerometers that can be used to detect movements of the device and as a result of the user. The N95 8GB and others use the accelerometer as a pedometer for determining footsteps. This could be used to determine the pace of the music. Even if there is no movement across a distance, the accelerometer could judge movement when the user is doing upper body exercises. Whether it’s free weights or machines, the movements generated by the arms could set a pace for the music to be played.

3. GPS

Music played at the gym is completely different than that played on a sunny day walk across the lake. If the music player can determine where it is based on GPS location it can then play music accordingly. Maybe even consider the weather for the location? Sunny day music is definitely much different from what one would listen to on a rainy one. Driving at high (legal) speeds that definitely begs for some faster music than when cruising at comparatively lower speeds.

4. Rules : Based on all 3

It’s up to the software / firmware division of the music player manufacturer to write intelligent algorithms that use a combination of factors to determine the music to be played. Either that or allow users to build rules allowing them to prioritize which of the above mentioned factors takes precedence, and then let the user like/dislike the track so the algorithm learns as it goes along. Walking along the lake may push my heart rate up as well as get the accelerometer going at an even pace, but location would take precedence. You get the idea here.

I’m looking at firms like Creative especially to come up with stuff like this. These players will definitely serve a niche market to begin with and maybe, if at all, will become more mainstream. But don’t expect this from Apple who haven’t yet figured out how to put FM Radio in their music players yet and more importantly believe the iPod Shuffle should come with a user manual.

There’s no better way to put your mind to what you’re doing then a perfect song to the situation. Quite often the difference between a good and a bad workout is the music you’re listening to. The same would apply to a nice walk in the rain or a pleasant drive home with the sun bright and shiny.

Related posts

• QTrax: Free LEGAL Music ? (6)
• Qtrax goes live, disappoints! (0)

This entry was posted on Friday, November 7th, 2008 at 12:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.