Design and Implementation of Impromptu Mobile Social Karaoke for Digital Cultural Spaces in the New Normal Era

Abstract

Although music singing and sharing is a most common cultural activity, users are not allowed to instantly share their own songs due to fixed streaming and listening services on the music service platforms. In order to deal with instant singing and listening together with other users, this research was conducted to propose a mobile social karaoke system that supports group creation and music sharing via smartphones. The proposed karaoke system consists of a social music cloud that provides impromptu mobile singing and sharing services on the user’s devices. The social music cloud manages a group of users and supports data streaming and message sharing among the users’ devices. The users’ devices enable users to utilize karaoke services based on touch and voice-based natural interfaces in consideration of mobile specifications. After testing the system’s usability and stability, the results illustrated that the voice-based interface was effective in controlling and using the service according to the devices’ mobility and availability. In addition, when karaoke services are utilized in small groups, music transmission/reception is possible without being affected by the number of users. This study has three implications: first, it presented an important possibility for the creation of more active digital cultural spaces and changing mobile life by providing users with a recreation function; second, it provides convenient touch and voice UI for mobile users; and, third, it improves performance and management through its distributed processing.