The world’s best hackers gather in Barcelona for a 24-hour marathon to develop apps based on human body signals

• For the first time in its history, Music Hack Day opens its doors to show the world how the technological apps that will soon be a part of our daily lives are developed in real-time
• Mobile World Capital Barcelona has teamed up with this event for the first time to explore how mobility, creativity, and physiology are interconnected
• The hackers hope to devise a number of mind-boggling apps, including one that allows people with total paralysis to control music players with their minds, or another that helps a DJ choose which music to spin based on real-time data that reflects the crowd’s mood

June 14, 2013

The planet’s premier hackers have flocked to Barcelona to take up a novel challenge: they have a maximum of 24 hours, working non-stop, to come up with music apps that interact with the different natural signals emitted by the human body. Participants in Barcelona Music Hack Day will work around the clock to decipher the information encoded in signals like brainwaves, heartbeats, and sweat, and use it to create practical, useful apps that could conceivably go to market in a matter of months. Thanks to mobile devices, anyone will be able to access these new tools anywhere in the world without the need for special equipment.

Music Hack Day is one of the many events scheduled for Sónar+D, a new section of the Sónar Festival of Advanced Music supported by Mobile World Capital Barcelona. The hackers’ conference is organized by the Music Technology Group of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in association with the university’s Scientific Communication Observatory. This year, in connection with the European KiiCS project, the organizers decided to take things up a notch by challenging participants to create apps that combine neuroscience, physiology, and music technology.

Glasses and Helmets to Capture Our Body’s Signals

In the past, this event has always been reserved for hackers and technology companies on the lookout for dazzling new apps. However, this year Music Hack Day is open to all Sónar +D visitors. Now, in addition to the image of a hundred-odd hackers from 24 different countries working at their computers, people will catch a glimpse of new high-tech gadgets like Google Glasses—glasses with lenses that display information usually stored in mobile devices, which will not hit the market until next year and are making their first public appearance in Spain at this event—and Enobio, a wireless helmet created by the Catalan firm Starlab that monitors brainwaves.

With these tools, the hackers will be able to experiment with the parameters of their own bodies and then compile data to create apps that allow totally paralyzed individuals to control audio players with their minds or help a DJ choose which music to spin based on real-time data on the audience’s mood. Signals from brainwaves, heartbeats, and sweat are detected by a sensor and parameterized by apps so they can be transformed into data and used to create a brand-new paradigm. These programming whizzes plan to tackle a number of other possible apps at this year’s Music Hack Day, like a mobile phone app that automatically plays music that matches the intensity of a physical workout, or an app capable of reading a person’s mood and selecting songs that define or inspire emotions related to that frame of mind.

Apps with a Promising Future

This event brings the brightest scientific and technological minds to Barcelona, but it also attracts companies eager to identify and market the best inventions: 20% of these hackers’ creations will continue to be developed after Sónar+D and may eventually be marketed by their inventors or as part of another app.

A case in point is the Catalan hacker Marcos Alonso, who has returned to Music Hack Day this year but at the same time is showcasing SamplR, a music app he created at last year’s event which is already on the market, at the Sónar+D AppBar.

Companies and university labs see Music Hack Day as an opportunity to watch new app concepts materialize in record time—just two days—which would take much longer to develop in isolated working conditions.

Looking Ahead: More than Music

In addition to Music Hack Day, Sónar+D organizes a variety of activities that draw 2,500 creative and technology industry professionals who represent 1,400 companies around the world. This new section of the festival hosts workshops, lectures, and demonstrations that focus on technology, services, and mobile device apps. After the festival, many of these innovations will find their way to the Mobile World Centre, Barcelona’s first permanent venue dedicated to mobile technology.