Sony Ericsson has a somewhat interesting patent in the works that would essentially allow your digital audio player to determine where you were located and then offer you up a list of downloadable tracks that have been tagged to that location.
The idea is that certain music works well in certain locations, like I’d tag “Ain’t That A Kick In The Head” to all the gas stations in my neighborhood and “Livin’ on a Prayer” to my local bank branch.
Here’s a little snippet of the patent, courtesy of Dial-a-Phone…
“A portable device may perform a location dependent music search. During the search, the portable device determines location information that identifies a location of the portable device, makes a request that includes the location information to a database, obtains a list of music sources associated with the location information from the database as a result of a search performed based on the request, selects a music source from the list, and outputs an audio signal associated with the selected music source.
Many people associate a physical location or a place to songs or pieces of music. In visiting or arriving at the place, they may remember the songs or the pieces of music and wish to hear them. They may also appreciate being supplied, automatically or after a request, information about the songs or pieces of music associated with the place.”
It sounds like an interesting feature, although I’d warn Sony Ericsson to stay away from making it the main feature of a product lineup. It’s not THAT cool.