This article was taken from the May 2013 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
Got something to share? Don't send your friends a URL -- chirp it to them instead. "Chirp is the first app to use strictly pitched, audible sound to share data," says Patrick Bergel, cofounder and CEO of London-based Animal Systems, which developed the free iOS and Android app. Users upload data to share to Chirp's servers, where it's assigned a series of 20 notes in a 1.8-second sequence that can be played through a smartphone's loudspeaker. When the microphones in other devices with the app detect the sound, it triggers them to retrieve the stored data or to carry out a command. "So, if a musician releases some bonus tracks, a chirp can be sent over the radio and your smartphone will redirect itself to those tracks," says Bergel, 42. "Unlike Bluetooth, which requires the pairing of devices, Chirp can, at the push of a button, broadcast data to any smartphone that can hear the sound."
Animal Systems, founded in 2010, is a spin-off from the computer science department at University College London and has received investment from UCL Business and the Imperial College Innovations Fund. Photos taken at the 2012 Sonar festival in Barcelona were chirped through a PA system.
Future developments include chirping payments for your coffee and other cheep -- sorry, cheap items. Charlie Foster chirp.io
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
