There are lots of boffins and whiz kids at Last.fm, and I’ve been task with conceptualising something they could make based on RFID tags for interacting with music data and streams. (RFIDs are little stickers with antennaes for use in contactless technology – like Oyster cards)
I’ve been sketch ideas for a fun way to change the genre of music on the reception radio stream using physical objects that have RFID stickers on them.
The first idea is for a stand-alone player using the guts of a Mac mini, stuffed in a box made of plywood, that has a slot in it for fluorescent perspex tag cards. Ram in the “pink” card and the box would light-up and the radio stream would switch to pure FUNK-FUNK. Other cards would be available… but only if you need something better than funk.
The other idea is to make little action figures based on the Last.fm “scrobblin” brand characters, with RFIDs on their feet that you place on a miniature stage containing the RFID reader. You could then make a mix stream by putting a number of scrobblin tags together to form a band, for instance: “electro emo funk rock”.
