L'observatoire Data & Créativité by iligo

Hum To Search

Google is an American multinational company specialized in Internet-related services and products such as advertising technologies (Google Ads), search engines (Google), cloud computing (Google Drive) and software for smartphones and laptops.

Have you ever have a rhythm, or a melody stuck in your head without knowing which song it came from? This type of inconvenience does happen a lot, especially for those with a short memory but not only. Not everyone think of using Shazam when they are at the supermarket and a catchy song is playing. With this situation, you find yourself thinking again about that good song you didn’t know and would like to hear again. Sometimes, it’s impossible to find it even in your entourage who may not know it and that fact can bring a little frustration, especially when you really want to listen to it again and add the song to your playlists. To solve that little problem from our daily lives, Google has added a new feature to its digital arsenal, that will find that “lost song” for you without too many difficulties. It works with your voice with tools from Google eco-system.

Indeed, the process is really simple. You need to sing, whistle or hum to your smartphone for 10 to 15 seconds. You can access the feature by using the Google app or go through the widget version on the app, that is present on your smartphone menu. Obviously, the app needs to be updated for you to be able to benefit from this new feature. With the Google application, you just need to tap on the icon when you want to use the “Hum to search” feature and say “What is the song”. There is a “Search a song button “too. After that, start humming for 10-15 seconds. It is basically the same process with Google Assistant, where you have to hum your melody after you have said “Hey Google, what’s this song?”

The “Hum to feature” is only available in English on IOS and in more than 20 languages on Android. The feature works with machine learning algorithms that are designed to help you find the good matches in relation with what it catches with the help of your voice (hum, sing etc.…). You don’t have to be Celine Dion to get your way, since Google will always accompany you with options and many details about the artist concerned, when it is found, which will optimize the research.
They use machine learning models that are going to find the song by using its melody which is considered as the “fingerprint” of the song. The whistle or hum is going to be compared to the melody, based on several sources collected by the algorithms such as human singings or humming in real life or in recording studios with no frills such as the sound of musical instruments to capture only the sound of the voice and compare it to several sounds in order to find the right one that is searched by the user.
The humming is the signature or fingerprint that help people finding the song without the original lyrics or song. The feature is developed by Research team’s music recognition technology from Google.