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I played, more than once, a few of the sound snippets. I think the Shazam "findings" are highly inaccurate. Fun project nonetheless! walz, could you write more

I played, more than once, a few of the sound snippets. I think the Shazam "findings" are highly inaccurate. Fun project nonetheless! walz, could you write more about the setup, maybe to propitiate others to replicate it in other cities?

trainyperson 2y ago
Same, although I know Shazam does most of its work on very high frequencies so it’s possible we’re not able to hear the part that got matched. The “Not Like Us” snippet (09/29 2:43pm) is easily recognizable though. And “Rockabye” can be heard at 3:05pm.
- duskwuff 2y ago
  > I know Shazam does most of its work on very high frequencies Are you sure about that? High frequencies don't propagate as well (and, beyond a point, aren't reproduced at all by cheap speakers), so that would seem to limit its effectiveness pretty severely.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
walz 2y ago
I've listened to a bunch of the snippets and you can usually just barely hear the sound in the background. Which makes me think Shazam is very accurate. I really should read more about how Shazam's algorithm works, because it feels like magic. The phone records 10 minute chunks of audio at a time, in airplane mode. Every 10 minutes, airplane mode is turned off and the audio is uploaded to a server. The server then splits the audio into 15 second overlapping chunks, and each is passed to Shazam's API (no official API, but someone reverse engineered it and made a great Python package). This setup is super power efficient! The phone dips down to a minimum 70% percent battery by the early morning.
- jldugger 2y ago
  > I really should read more about how Shazam's algorithm works, because it feels like magic. https://www.ee.columbia.edu/~dpwe/papers/Wang03-shazam.pdf https://www.ee.columbia.edu/~dpwe/papers/Wang03-shazam.pdf
  - alwa 2y ago
    Also, if you’re more visual, algorithm inventor Avery Wang delivered an accessible and detailed lecture at DAFx several years back: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YVTnj3OIhwI https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YVTnj3OIhwI I found it especially insightful because he started from the beginning and traced the thought process as the algorithm developed and became more sophisticated.
- rconti 2y ago
  will be interesting to see how it fares in the winter!
  - throwup238 2y ago
    A San Francisco winter? The mean daily minimum is something like 45F, it's more likely to have trouble overheating during the summer.
    - rconti 2y ago
      Less daily solar radiation to power/recharge the phone.
    - bigiain 2y ago
      "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." -- Mark Twain I suspect moisture damage from Karl The Fog rolling in every afternoon is more likely to kill it.
- callalex 2y ago
  The battery will live much longer if you run it from 80% down to 50%. There are some clever plugs you can get off the shelf if your phone doesn’t support setting this in software.

trainyperson 2y ago

Same, although I know Shazam does most of its work on very high frequencies so it’s possible we’re not able to hear the part that got matched. The “Not Like Us” snippet (09/29 2:43pm) is easily recognizable though. And “Rockabye” can be heard at 3:05pm.

duskwuff 2y ago
> I know Shazam does most of its work on very high frequencies Are you sure about that? High frequencies don't propagate as well (and, beyond a point, aren't reproduced at all by cheap speakers), so that would seem to limit its effectiveness pretty severely.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

walz 2y ago

I've listened to a bunch of the snippets and you can usually just barely hear the sound in the background. Which makes me think Shazam is very accurate. I really should read more about how Shazam's algorithm works, because it feels like magic. The phone records 10 minute chunks of audio at a time, in airplane mode. Every 10 minutes, airplane mode is turned off and the audio is uploaded to a server. The server then splits the audio into 15 second overlapping chunks, and each is passed to Shazam's API (no official API, but someone reverse engineered it and made a great Python package). This setup is super power efficient! The phone dips down to a minimum 70% percent battery by the early morning.

jldugger 2y ago
> I really should read more about how Shazam's algorithm works, because it feels like magic. https://www.ee.columbia.edu/~dpwe/papers/Wang03-shazam.pdf https://www.ee.columbia.edu/~dpwe/papers/Wang03-shazam.pdf
- alwa 2y ago
  Also, if you’re more visual, algorithm inventor Avery Wang delivered an accessible and detailed lecture at DAFx several years back: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YVTnj3OIhwI https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YVTnj3OIhwI I found it especially insightful because he started from the beginning and traced the thought process as the algorithm developed and became more sophisticated.
rconti 2y ago
will be interesting to see how it fares in the winter!
- throwup238 2y ago
  A San Francisco winter? The mean daily minimum is something like 45F, it's more likely to have trouble overheating during the summer.
  - rconti 2y ago
    Less daily solar radiation to power/recharge the phone.
  - bigiain 2y ago
    "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." -- Mark Twain I suspect moisture damage from Karl The Fog rolling in every afternoon is more likely to kill it.
callalex 2y ago
The battery will live much longer if you run it from 80% down to 50%. There are some clever plugs you can get off the shelf if your phone doesn’t support setting this in software.