Kenji Kojima developed a music app called RGB MusicLab that transforms images into music. You can download the app gratis and do what you will with the ditty coming out of that awkward family portrait on your blog, video or work presentation.
Here’s how it works:
RGB MusicLab converts RGB (Red, Green and Blue) value of an image to chromatic scale sounds. The program reads RGB value of pixels from the top left to the bottom right of an image. One pixel makes a harmony of three note of RGB value, and the length of note is determined by brightness of the pixel. RGB value 120 or 121 is the center C, and RGB value 122 or 123 is added a half steps of the scale that is C#. Pure black that is R=0, G=0, B=0 is no sounds.
The clever folks over at Synthtopia took the app for a spin using a head shot of actress Megan Fox — currently topping lad mag FHM’s list of the sexiest woman alive.
The resulting music is a little unnerving, probably because they went with Ambient Piano and Eno Voices for the tempo and instrumentation, all under the user’s control. (Trite, but perhaps she’d sound more like she looks with an allegro agitato or samba).
It’s all in the algorithms, says Kojima:
“(The music) is not an impression of a painting or a photograph of a musical variation. It is not an arbitrary process. It composes a score from an image directly. It is simple and clear algorithm, and does not have any hidden or mysterious tricks. Anybody can get a same result if he/she takes same processes.”
If you try it on a portrait of Steve Jobs or an iPhone, let us know what they “sound” like…
Via Synthtopia, Psicoff on Twitter
