(Image courtesy of Chirp.)
Chirp—a data-over-sound technology company—is now offering a free software development kit (SDK) enabling all kinds of users to develop their applications with sound-based data transmission.
Chirp encodes input information into an audio signal and sends it at a high-speed rate through a device’s speaker. A receiving device can pick up the signal through its microphone and translate the information back into its original form. This process can be done over a range of audio frequencies, even near-ultrasonic frequencies, making it more imperceptible than old school “data-over-sound” technology (e.g. dial-up internet).
The company states that this technology bypasses the need for passwords and pairing, works without network connection, can work in noisy environments, and utilizes secure cryptography to protect the transmitted information.
It can also operate across all the standard platforms like iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, JavaScript, and Python.
In a statement, Chairman of Chirp Stephen Dunford said, “We’re proud to support developers and small businesses by making Chirp available at no cost. Our technology is frictionless and secure, revolutionising data transfer for developers and organisations, and solving real-world problems. We help businesses create new and innovative ways for technology and people to interact, and now we are doing this free of charge.”
This offering from Chirp also does not have a limited time use. In fact, users can work Chirp into their commercial applications with up to 10,000 monthly active users, as well as non-commercial applications with no limit on the number of users.