tunA

< In this project, music constitutes the main interest around which communities, virtual and real, can be formed and reinforced. Music is commonly used as a form of mobile entertainment, through personal devices such as Walkmans or digital players. While so far listening to music when moving around has been mostly an individual and quite isolating experience, tunA suggests it could also be made into a fun and socialising experience. tunA is a mobile wireless application that allows users to share their music locally through handheld devices. Users can "tune in" to other nearby tunA music players and listen to what someone else is listening to.

Developed on iPaqs and connected via 802.11b in ad-hoc mode, the application displays a list of people using
tunA that are in range, gives access to their profile and playlist information, and enables synchronized
peer-to-peer audio streaming. tunA can be used as a standard MP3 player for personal music, but it also keeps
track of all the other tunA users who are in range and provides options to access their personal profile and playlist
information. The user has an option to "tune in" and start listening to what another person is listening to.
An important aspect of this work is the synchronisation of the listening experience. The "tune in" option gives in
fact only streaming access to the song the remote user is currently listening to, not other songs in their playlist.
To keep track of songs and people encountered, tunA incorporates the ability to keep a record of favorites. >