Using a combination of RFID technology, Processing and Arduino, Jacek Barcikowski, Filippo Cuttica and Ulrik A. Hogrebethe created an installation with location aware speakers allowing the user to interact with music and the environment by moving the speakers around the room.

The RHIFID speakers were used for the project “This is a Journey into Sound” – an educational trip into the history of electronica, rock and hip hop from the past 50 years. A grid is mapped out using RFID tags (the red things on the floor), allowing each user of the two speakers to listen to a song individually, within a specific genre and decade by placing it on the RFID tag. Each RFID is mapped to a song iconic of that decade in the appropriate genre.

Putting the two speakers together triggers the speakers into playing one common song, creating a social listening experience. The RHIFID speakers can also be modified into musical creators rather than just controllers, allowing location and rotation to control such things as pitch, samples and effects.

Project page here and here.

(use headphones when watching the video)