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New Chrome Extension Uses Sound To Share URLs Between Devices

Posted by samzenpus on from the sound-of-malware dept.

itwbennett writes: Google Tone is an experimental feature that could be used to easily and instantly share browser pages, search results, videos and other pages among devices, according to Google Research. "The initial prototype used an efficient audio transmission scheme that sounded terrible, so we played it beyond the range of human hearing," researcher Alex Kauffmann and software engineer Boris Smus wrote in a post on the Google Research blog.

3 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. What about the dogs? by Bruce66423 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Given they've got hearing at a higher frequency, the operating frequency will have to be VERY high to avoid upsetting our best friends...

  2. Android/ChromeCast already uses ultrasonic by BoogieChile · · Score: 3, Interesting

    To send data to a nearby chromecast without needing to connect to the network that the ChromeCast is on, an Android device will link to the ChromeCast with an ultrasonic signal.

  3. Re:But why??? by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Let me send you this link on Skype. Oh wait, you don't have Skype. No, I don't have WhatsApp. Facebook? No. Okay, I'll email it to you. Wait, what's your address? Okay, I'll just type that in. Damn you, autocorrect! Okay, sent.

    Not got it yet? Did you check your spam folder? Okay, there you go. Haha, what a funny kitty. Totally worth all that screwing around working out how to send the link to you when we could have just each pressed one or two buttons in Chrome*.

    ~~~

    That's not to say that Google Chrome isn't a solution looking for a problem.

    *And of course, it could then easily continue with "Wait, do you have Chrome?" and so on.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.