If, as the saying goes, a picture is worth 1,000 words, then what is a picture with its own soundtrack worth?
That's what the people behind a new app called Mhoto want to find out. Mhoto analyzes any picture and then creates a song that is suited to that particular image. The app basically looks at the picture's saturation, brightness and contrast levels and creates music that supposedly fits the "mood" of the image.
Sound kind of hokey? Here's how Mhoto co-founder and CTO Daniel Ketter explained it in an email: "These characteristics [color, hue, brightness, etc.] are sent to our sound engine, which interprets these as performance input. The sound engine is loaded with sounds, performances and other musical cues which allow it to compose a complete song fitting the photo's mood."
Hmm. OK, so why would anyone want to match music to their photos? As Engadget pointed out, people could use Mhoto to analyze your contacts' avatars and assign a unique ringtone to each. Ketter seems convinced that the applications for Mhoto to create new ways of experiencing photos are wide.
"We will not only create apps for the consumer (monetized with ads) that utilize the sound technology but will also license it to other large and small companies," he said in the email. "We also have in-house music publishing which will allow us to license the world's largest sound library for film, TV and business presentations."
Ketter says he is already in talks with companies like HTC, Sony, Samsung, China Mobile and Getty Images. To get a better sense of what Mhoto does, check out the video demonstration from Engadget below.
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