WiFi music polling system replaces DJs

Researchers at UCLA have invented a WiFi music polling system for DJing by consensus. Instead of a DJ having to guess his listeners’ preferences, the “Smart Party” system polls the music on each party-goers’ WiFi enabled mobile device (so far only laptops) and creates a playlist based on the most popular songs or music genres.

There are still a lot of kinks to work out, such as dealing with DRM and supporting more devices including cell phones (come on, who brings a laptop to a party), but the system has the potential to create great party mixes tailored to the audience when it’s perfected.
Read more »