A startup called Sonic Notify is working on a product that embeds inaudibly high-pitched signals into music and audio, which can be detected by your smartphone.
When a compatible app hears the signal, it could be triggered to take an action -- linking you to a website, displaying text or an image, or bringing up a location on a map. That yields all sorts of possibilities -- you could vote on your favourite song of a performance, or be directed to a secret aftershow party, for example.
The app is funded by the band MGMT's record label, Cantora Records, which recently opened a technology division. It's offering between £17,000 and £63,000 to startups with interesting ideas.
Sonic Notify is one of the first. "[Sonic Notify] transmits a high-frequency sound wave through speakers -- we can't hear the frequency but smartphones can hear it, so we're able to unlock content at live events, TV shows, and through the web," Jesse Israel, co-founder of Cantora Records +
Labs told Evolver.fm. "With Sonic, we can unlock anything that your iPhone or Android can do, as long as the SonicNotify SDK is built into an app that's running in the background on your phone."
At Fashion Week, buyers and journalists with the app installed will be able to access images of the models as they step onto the catwalk, so they can see the outfits up close too.
If you want to give it a try, you can do so right now by grabbing the Sonic Notify app for iOS or Android. Sonic Notify's website has several demos that you can use.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
