Wired 13.01: START. As a nice footnote to Evan’s earlier post on musical accompaniment, Wired’s posted a brief note on the innovative use of music to signal changes in financial information flow:
“…That lengthy marimba trill coming from the left speaker, for example? It represents a trade involving a large quantity of short-maturity treasury bonds.
Traders have a Pavlovian response: They learn gradually to associate music with market movements – no training required.
Now many use the Accentus software to monitor 15 or more market indicators, each represented by a different instrument….”
Particularly interesting is the ‘Pavlovian response’ to the musical notes – this allows, I guess, for subconcious reaction precluding the conscious need to check…it’s like PointCast on steroids!
I’d spent ages talking with a colleague about music and learning – as I have terrible recall of information, but I can remember all the word’s to Meat Loaf’s ‘Paradise by the dashboard light’, which I last listened to when I was 11 (er, did I just admit to that?).
I was thinking about musical accompaniment to learning content – and wondering whether the replaying of the music (or chords?) would trigger the recall of information…imagine; you’re stuck in the middle of a complex business workflow, instead of googling, or opening the ‘contextual help’ – you click ‘#’ and a few chords gently waft across your speakers…bing! instantly, you recall that the accounts receivable column should be totalled with column D, not C…(is that what business workflows are? :-)
On a similar note (groaaaan), I’m totally smitten with Ambient Devices, an MIT spin-off that produces fixed, analogue information displays. I saw the ‘orb‘, a piece of connected glass that glows a different colour dependent on, for example, the weather in 2 hrs, a few months ago and totally didn’t get it…but now? I’m a convert – the whole idea of simple, glanceable information displays is really interesting…plus the info they represent can be totally customised. Here’s a link to an excellent presentation (warning – 10mb PDF) from the guy behind ambient devices.
And good news…they’re coming to the UK…not sure when, but I’ll be first in line for a glowing orb and wobbling meters on my desk :-)
(Wired piece via Kottke.)