I saw this and was simply amazed by its simplicity. So many use cases, so little time. Sounds like R2D2 talking to ya!
Currently Only Available for iphones though. Android versions being worked on.
For more info: http://chirp.io/
What is Chirp?
Chirp is a way to share links using sound.
Why sound?
Because sound is everywhere. Because there are billions of little loudspeakers on Earth: in radios, TVs, laptops, phones. So everywhere there’s a loudspeaker, you can put links to useful or interesting or helpful stuff. That’s why.
Why not just use Bluetooth, email, or some IM client?
Chirp is designed for quick and easy sharing between people in the same place.
Unlike Bluetooth, Chirp doesn’t require you to pair devices, and unlike email, you don’t even need to type in anyone’s email address. And, unlike instant messaging clients, you don’t have to add recipients from a buddy list.
To share stuff, you don’t need to be friends on Facebook, or following each other on Twitter, or connected on LinkedIn. None of that is needed.
Just press the big yellow Chirp button, and anyone running the app can ‘hear’ the data.
Sound is a pretty flexible medium
Because we transfer little bits of data as sound, more than one person can receive a chirp at once. So you can send a chirp over a PA system, over the radio, or a YouTube movie. It’s up to you. Where else could we put a chirp? Let us know your ideas.
How does it work?
You can think of a chirp as a tiny piece of music. Each chirp lasts about two seconds. The system listens out for a couple of dozen notes played rapidly in a certain order, within a certain range, at a certain speed. The audio engine tries to decode the sequence of notes into a sequence of letters which our server understands. The server then returns a link to the user so they can go wherever the short code points: to a webpage, say. This decode all happens in realtime on your phone. Here’s a brief technical introduction
What happens when it’s noisy?
The world is a noisy place. Chirp is designed to cope with traffic sound, music, speech, TVs blaring in the background, and so on. We’ve spent a lot of time on buses and bars in South London testing the Chirp audio engine, and we think the system is pretty good at present. Roughly speaking, if you can hear it, the app can hear it. Chirp works better if you’re close to the sound in a fairly quiet place, and it doesn’t work at all if you’re a long way away in a noisy place.
Can anyone hear what I’m chirping?
Yes, just like speaking. If Alice chirps something to Bob, and Charles is listening, then Charles can hear it too. In future, we may make it more like a regular messaging system where Alice needs to specify Bob’s name. But that wouldn’t be nearly so much fun.
Is it listening all the time?
No. If you put the app in the background, it’s off.