Innovative interfaces for music categorization and access 

By applying SOM neural nets to automatically analyzed audio content (frequency spectra), researchers at TUWien-IFS have created a very innovative way to organize music by sound similarity. After categorization, the content of an audio collections is graphically displayed (on the screen of a laptop or mobile device) as a topographic map where colour represents the density of a particular genre in the collection. The user can then select a playlist reflecting his or her mood by drawing a path through this audio landscape.

• Contact: Andi Rauber, TUVienna-IFS or visit http://www.ifs.tuwien.ac.at/mir  
• For more information: see Andi Rauber's talk Indexing and Interfacing with Audio Collections at the Istanbul meeting .