Some interesting ideas and apps have been created using smartphone
cameras – some more creative and intriguing than others. Ranking up
there with those utilities which allow words and sentences captured via
the camera lens to be translated on-the-fly, SnapNPlay for Android
allows you to take pictures of sheet music, and then plays that piece
back to you.
Based on an optical music recognition algorithm written by the
developer, it does a much better job than one would perhaps expect from
such an app. It has been created to detect the language of musical notes
written on paper, although can also pick up music from a computer
screen.
As you can guess, the brighter the environment and surroundings, the
better the app will perform, thus the likelier you are to get a perfect
transfer from paper to your Android device. Similarly, you’re at an advantage if your device’s camera happens to be one of the sharper snappers on the market.
It’s by no means the finished article. At the moment, it doesn’t
attempt to parse rests, grace notes, nor triplets, and it can often
erroneously flag a non-note glyph as an actual note. Nonetheless, it
works well for what is a version 1.0, and the developer has promised to
work hard on improving SnapNPlay in order to make it more complete in future versions.
It can deal with slanted shots, and those taken in dim lighting with
the flash (that is, of course, if your camera has a flash), but it is
always recommended you try to capture the image as clearly and correctly
as possible, affording you the best and most accurate possible outcome.
The full version is $3.99, although there is also a demo version you
can test drive before making the purchase. If you enjoy playing
instruments, or just simply take pleasure in listening to the ambient
sounds that can be created by them, then SnapNPlay could well be the app for you.
If you’ve no idea of how to read music, but like the idea of learning,
then this app could also be your ticket to a fluent understanding.
Download SnapNPlay for Android [Google Play link]
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