WORLDSONG is a collaboration to develop world-wide audio navigation for the Internet. Beyond the current "hit and play" audio associated with Netscape, AOL and other browsers, or even the background ambience or broadcast-byte work being done with RealAudio, WORLDSONG is designed for surfers to "hear" the sounds of our planet and use them to navigate the Web. WORLDSONG will eventually include conference spaces such as SOLACE (Sacred On-Line Active Communal Environment) with real-time spatio-located audio for business, meditation or entertainment.
T_Vision (ART+COM, Berlin) is an earth visualisation project. It provides a virtual globe as a multimedia interface to visualize any kind of data related to a geographic region. The virtual globe is modelled from high resolution spatial data and textured with high resolution satelite images.
T_Vision represents a prototypical visual interface for the type of navigation we are envisioning. Our audio plug-in is designed to function in conjunction with a T-Vision-type browser. This satellite based model will call on servers worldwide to spool the updated audio and visual materials.
WORLDSONG creates a protocol for audiofile types and sizes which music studios and individual users can follow for participation in the project. The stratafied classes of sound allow the software to comingle, crossfade or mix the various sound bytes. Sound bytes are available for longer-form examination by clicking and downloading. The navigational aspects really come into play as T-Vision is translated into VRML 2.0 and the three dimensional planet is combined with its (now spatialized) audio counterparts.