Roadcasting: A Potential Mesh Network Killer App

The Quicktime-formatted promotional video for the roadcasting project begins with a black screen that quickly dissolves into a still black-and-white image of a driver sitting behind the steering wheel, wearing a look of frustration and boredom. The narration begins: "Everyone has experienced the headaches of FM radio. There’s the endless commercials, the same old songs over and over again, and the difficulty of finding something that you want to hear. Welcome to the next generation of radio: roadcasting."

The terrestrial radio industry is already fighting a multi-front battle with the ascendant satellite radio business and nascent podcasting community. Now it has another technological innovation to worry about: roadcasting.

The concept was created by a team of five students at Carnegie Mellon University. Their Human-Computer Interaction Institute Masters Program project, which was sponsored by General Motors according to a company spokeswoman, combines three hot areas: ad hoc (mesh) computer networks, personalized digital music, and open-source software development. While the hardware elements — the network devices, the touch-screen interface, and the stereo component — have yet to be created, the working software application is currently being picked over by open-source enthusiasts around the world.

The most straightforward use for the software enables users to create their own personal radio stations — playlists — and store them on an in-car stereo hard drive. The real innovation, though, comes from what happens once a playlist is created. While a driver is listening to music from his or her playlist, the songs will be broadcast and available for reception by any other car with a roadcast-equipped car stereo. So, if a driver gets bored with their music, the software’s collaborative filtering capabilities will automatically scan the airwaves looking for other roadcast stations that match the driver’s stated preferences, and return any matching available stations. Listeners can search by bands, genres, and song titles, and skip through other users’ radio stations to find music they want to hear.

By Eric Hellweg

Full Story: http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/articles/05/06/wo/wo_061005hellweg.asp?trk=nl