BBC News - Chirp app sends smartphone data via 'digital birdsong'
I'd be surprised if it is ever in the news again after the summer
For a jaded old technology journalist it is rare to come across an innovation that immediately makes you go "wow". But that was my reaction when I was shown Chirp a few days ago.
The simplicity and the sheer fun of an app that chirps information from one phone to another is hugely appealing, both retro and futuristic at the same time.
But the small team of computer scientists who've developed the app at UCL have big ambitions.
They want the word "to chirp" to enter the vocabulary, they see a future where you pay for a can of drink with a chirp, where crowds at events receiving mass chirps over the tannoy or radio audiences hold their phones up to be sent chirped information.
In the end, this may be an app that just proves a passing craze - but how inspiring to meet a British startup with such Californian ambitions.
The simplicity and the sheer fun of an app that chirps information from one phone to another is hugely appealing, both retro and futuristic at the same time.
But the small team of computer scientists who've developed the app at UCL have big ambitions.
They want the word "to chirp" to enter the vocabulary, they see a future where you pay for a can of drink with a chirp, where crowds at events receiving mass chirps over the tannoy or radio audiences hold their phones up to be sent chirped information.
In the end, this may be an app that just proves a passing craze - but how inspiring to meet a British startup with such Californian ambitions.
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