Loudspeakers and microphones were recently integrated into a London taxi in a bid to make the city sound better (and sell some headphones). Headphone manufacturer, Aiaiai, drafted the services of "sound artist" Yuri Suzuki to create the Sound Taxi that records its surroundings, processes the data and plays it out as music to London's pedestrians.
The Making The City Sound Better project saw an iconic London taxi equipped with microphones that record surrounding noise. A software program, designed specifically for this application, converts the recording into music, in real-time.
Music is then played out via 67 loudspeakers, integrated into the body of the vehicle, and through big Indain horns mounted on the car’s roof. Passengers can also listen using headphones installed in the vehicle.
Making The City Sound Better is a campaign for the release of Aiaiai’s Capital headphones.