Credit Synthesis

This little interactive installation made by Jonathan Vingiano reads the information magnetically stored on credit cards and translates it into sound.

Nothing too ambitious here, but a funny little piece of data sonifying art. I don't know what kind of algorithm is used to generate the sound, and if it would be possible to learn to understand what is on the cards? 

(via @Rodrigo_Medina)

Comments

[Danny]

Great Idea but the outcome is a little disappointing. Could also be a great trick from a gang of skimmers.

BTW keep up the great work with your website/blog.

grtz,

Danny

[Jeroen Holthuis]

On a credit card there is one clock signal and a data signal. The clock signal is just 101010101010101010 and so on, the parallel data signal can be anything. The clock signal helps the reader decode at the right data rate so a user can slide the card through at different speeds. What you hear is not what you would expect. Maybe the synthesizer is just modulated with the numeral data on the card.

Great site you have! I have an idea of an audio sculpture in my mind which I want to make this year. I'll drop you a line when I have any progress on it.

Cheers,

Jeroen

[admin]

Thanks for the clarification, Jeroen. And I'm glad you like the site. Please let me know when you have some work ready. I can write a post about it or we can do a little interview or something!