How Google Maps, Spotify, Shazam and More Work | WSJ Tech Behind

The Wall Street Journal

16 Dec 202348:03

EducationalLearning

32 Likes 10 Comments

TLDRThe video explores the technology behind everyday consumer products and experiences. It looks at how Google Maps uses satellite imagery, crowd-sourced data, and algorithms to provide directions. It also examines the AI and algorithms behind Spotify's personalized playlists. Other topics include the NFC technology enabling tap-to-pay credit cards, the noise cancellation in headphones using digital signal processing, and Shazam's audio fingerprinting to identify songs. Overall, the video offers an engaging look at the engineering and science behind the technology people use daily.

Takeaways

🗺️ Google Maps revolutionized digital mapping through acquisitions, satellite imagery, and community contributions.
🎧 Spotify's recommendation system uses collaborative and content-based filtering along with human editors to surface personalized music.
🤝 Tap-to-pay relies on near-field communication (NFC) between a reader and card to enable quick, secure contactless payments.
🔇 Noise-cancelling headphones create an inverse audio wave to cancel out background noise in real-time.
🎥 Filming content for theSphere theater required building the Big Sky camera to capture super wide, high-res footage.
🔊 Shazam creates audio fingerprints from song snippets to rapidly match and identify tunes.
👀 Augmented reality could enable adaptive audio to filter unwanted sounds in variable contexts.
❤️ K-pop groups pioneered light stick technology to turn audiences into part of the show.
💰 Contactless payments finally gaining traction in the US through public transit and small merchants.
🎞️ Sphere venue combines 16K resolution screen, spatial audio, scents, and seats with haptic feedback for full immersion.

Q & A

How does Google Maps use satellite imagery to create maps?
-Google Maps layers together satellite and aerial imagery with data from Street View using a process called photogrammetry. This allows them to pinpoint the right geographic coordinates to align the imagery into an accurate map.
What criticism has Google Maps received related to the amount of data it collects?
-Google Maps has been criticized by privacy experts for the large amount of data it collects, including detailed location data. There are also concerns around Street View images showing private property without permission.
How does Spotify's recommendation system work?
-Spotify's recommendation system uses a combination of collaborative filtering, which looks at how users group tracks, and content-based filtering, which analyzes the audio and metadata of tracks. These filters create a 'map' linking similar songs.
What is NFC technology and how does it allow tap-to-pay transactions?
-NFC or Near Field Communication allows devices to communicate when they are close together. Tap-to-pay transactions use NFC so your card or phone can quickly and securely transmit payment information to a reader.
How do noise cancelling headphones create silence?
-Noise cancelling headphones measure incoming sound waves and generate equal but opposite sound waves to cancel them out before they reach your ears, creating silence.
How did the Big Sky camera system solve issues filming content for the Sphere theater?
-The Big Sky camera system combines 11 cameras into one perspective, uses a giant fisheye lens to capture an extremely wide angle, and has a specialized square sensor to efficiently capture the circular image.
How does Shazam's audio fingerprinting technology identify songs?
-Shazam simplifies sound into spectrograms, isolates the peaks as a 'fingerprint', and quickly searches its database for matching song fingerprints to identify the tune.
How did Shazam expand from its initial 2002 UK phone service?
-Shazam expanded by releasing popular smartphone apps, improving its recognition algorithms, buying back patents it had sold, and eventually being acquired by Apple in 2018.
What breakthroughs led Google Maps to provide directions and satellite imagery in browsers?
-Google's acquisitions of Keyhole and Where2 Technologies provided accessible satellite imagery viewers and improved map user interfaces that led to its searchable maps and directions.
Why was tap-to-pay adoption slow initially in the US?
-US tap-to-pay adoption was slow at first because merchants were reluctant to upgrade payment systems, consumers didn't see benefits to changing behavior, and it lacked compelling everyday use cases initially.

Outlines

00:00

🗺️ How Google Maps Was Built and Evolved to Remap the World

Launched in mid-2000s, Google Maps provided innovative satellite imagery in browsers, acquiring companies like Where2 and Keyhole. It layered satellite/Streetview imagery with live public data to build an accurate, constantly updating map. This amount of geo data enabled features like traffic predictions but also drew privacy criticism.

05:01

📸 How Street View Images and User Data Keep Google Maps Up to Date

Google uses a variety of camera-mounted vehicles and backpacks to capture geo-located Street View imagery globally. Computer vision detects map changes over time like new businesses. Public transit and user data provide live traffic trends and busyness predictions.

10:01

🎧 How Spotify Uses Data and AI to Make Personalized Music Recommendations

Leveraging acquisition The Echo Nest's machine learning, Spotify analyzes audio features and metadata alongside user listening patterns. This powers personalized playlists, though some experts caution algorithmic bias risks.

15:02

👛 Why Tap-to-Pay Took So Long to Take Off in the US

Though early adopters, US was slow to adopt NFC tap-to-pay tech. Reader infrastructure upgrade costs and lack of consumer incentive stymied growth. Push for contactless payments during COVID-19 has finally boosted usage.

20:04

🎧💨 The Tech That Tunes Out Unwanted Noise in Noise-Cancelling Headphones

Specialized algorithms measure incoming soundwaves and produce cancelling waves, filtered by ear shape. Future tech could eliminate non-stationary sounds like barking by learning what noises to remove contextually.

25:06

🌎 Shooting and Screening Content for the World's Largest Spherical Screen

To film content for Las Vegas' massive 16K spherical display, a custom fisheye camera rig captures detail and immersive perspective. Testing footage on a smaller prototype dome ensures it looks natural.

30:07

📱 How Shazam Recognizes Songs in Seconds by Turning Audio into Visual Fingerprints

Shazam pioneered audio fingerprinting, simplifying sound spectrograms into point scatter plots. Matching these patterns over millions of songs enables speedy song recognition amidst background noise.

35:08

👂🏻🎶 The Past, Present and Future of Noise-Cancelling Headphone Tech

Noise-cancelling headphones measure sound waves to generate cancelling inverted waves. Custom tuning filters match users' ear shapes. Future tech could eliminate non-stationary sound contextually.

40:11

🚀🌎 Filming Earth from Space to Display Immersive Content on a Giant Spherical Screen

A custom fisheye lens camera called Big Sky captures detail and angle to shoot content for Las Vegas' giant 16K wrap-around sphere screen. ISS footage is planned.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡mapping

Mapping refers to creating digital representations of real-world spaces, like Google Maps showing roads and locations on a screen. It's a key concept in the video as several technologies aim to map the world, translate physical environments into digital formats, or plot information on a map.

💡algorithm

Algorithms are sets of instructions or code that direct applications and systems to function. The video explores recommendation algorithms used by Spotify to suggest content and mapping algorithms used by Google Maps to plot routes.

💡fingerprinting

Audio fingerprinting is the process of identifying unique sound signatures from songs that can be matched to entries in a database. Shazam uses audio fingerprinting to quickly recognize music.

💡pixels

Pixels are the tiny dots of color that make up digital images and screens. The video explains how pixel count relates to resolution and image quality for the cameras and screens used in venues like the Sphere theater.

💡encryption

Encryption encodes data so it can only be read by authorized parties. The video examines encryption used in contactless payments to protect card information during transactions.

💡antenna

Antennas enable devices to transmit data via radio frequencies. Small NFC antennas in cards and readers power quick contactless payments by communicating encrypted data.

💡waveform

A sound waveform is a visual representation of audio frequency and amplitude over time. The video shows how noise cancelling headphones measure soundwaves then generate inverse waves.

💡microphone

Microphones capture audio input that noise cancelling headphones measure to identify environmental sounds to remove. The video describes inner and outer mics.

💡sensor

Sensors measure real-world inputs like sound or light and convert them into digital data. Camera sensors capture imagery and lidar sensors help map environments.

💡cryptographic

Cryptographic processing encodes data to improve security, as with the unique transaction code contactless cards generate.

Highlights

First significant research finding

Introduction of new theoretical model

Description of innovative experimental method

Key conclusions and practical applications

Transcripts

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