Toshiba develops interesting new music search

TOSHIBA HAS finished prototyping an all-new way to search for music, where the user uses his or her phone to tap in the basic rhythm of a song they've heard.

Using an algorithm invented by Tosh, the system notes the time between key hits and compares them to the rhythm of songs contained in a large database.

According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun Friday, for tests carried out with computers, the system delivered 99% accurate results. Pretty impressive, but I wonder how it would fare with some Iron Maiden.

Toshiba is still researching rhythms, and will carry on updating the software to try and get even more accurate results. Since the search is software based, the feature can be applied to all sorts of devices, including portable ones like PDA's and mobile phones - possibly to find that elusive ring tone you're after. µ