Musically

Music can be heard through headphones and speakers. You can feel the music as it plays and dance to its rhythm and beat. But we think music should also be seen. That’s what this project is trying to accomplish: to see music.

Through the use of an app on a smartphone, C by GE bulbs can be controlled to turn on and off and change its brightness albeit only in one color. With the option to change colors this opens up several new possibilities for the bulb to be used. Our use is to have the color of the bulb change according to the song that is being played.

For instance imagine you are playing an energetic dance song, then the bulb is going to be changing color quickly in a wide range of colors as the song plays through. But if you are playing a slow jazz song then the bulb may linger on a color for short time, showing soft colors and changing slowly as the song continues.

By using some software such as Spotify’s Echo Nest API we can analyze the song that is being played and use some of the data (ex. tempo, loudness, energy, danceability) to determine the “mood” of the song. Then, depending on the mood, send a pattern of colors to be displayed on the C by GE bulb.

All this would work within the C by GE app itself. The user can open up their C by GE app and in addition to selecting the brightness of their bulb, they would also be able to choose a song from their phone’s playlist. And while they can hear the song play through their phone’s speakers, they would also “see” their music play though the C by GE light bulb.