London: A team of students from a UK university has developed the prototype of an app that allows an infinite number of devices to play music simultaneously.
The team from Exeter University has won a prize of 33,100 pounds to further develop the app, SoundSynk, in innovation at the Imagine Cup, a global student technology competition held in Russia.
SoundSynk connects phones and other devices through a so-called artificial mesh network, allowing them to play the same song on all devices in perfect harmony.
The team has so far tested it on 75 devices and hope the app will be available across all platforms in August, BBC News reported.
"With this technology, we can create hyper-local social networks. SoundSynk is the first practical use of this technology and we are all very excited about its future applications," said student Rob Parker.
The team, including Edward Noel, came up with the idea late on a Saturday night in February. They were playing Sweet Nothings by the DJ, Calvin Harris, on a laptop and they wanted to have it louder as they brainstormed.
"Being students we wanted to have a little rave but the volume was not sufficient," Alex Bochenski said.
"At this point we did the age-old technique of lining up all of our phones, laptops, tablets and trying to play the song at the same time," Bochenski said.
It didn't work - but it sparked the idea of the app that would eventually see them beating teams from Slovenia and Thailand in the innovation category.
"We developed a prototype of the product in 24 hours for the regionals of the Imagine Cup," Bochenski said.
Eighty-seven student teams from 71 countries competed in the worldwide finals of the Imagine cup sponsored by Microsoft.
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