November 11, 2005

iTunes Jukebox v2.0

Work has begun on the iTunes Jukebox v2.0. (This is the project page for version 1.0.). The new iTunes Jukebox site is live at: iTJukebox.com.

Zach and I have expanded our group to include Summer, who is going to be helping us with the aesthetic concerns, among other things.

We are planning on going through with a lot of the technical whiz-bangery that we weren't able to get to the first time around. Here's a list of a few itemized planned improvements:

• Make more robust connections for the CD jewel cases. Connection problems with the cases were the biggest problem we faced in the first incarnation. The CDs would only make intermittent contact and we would end up with the jukebox skipping tracks and not recognizing tracks.
• Make the jukebox have live updating. Before, it would only update after a song had finished playing. In the new version, it will know immediately when you insert or remove a track, and we will have the ability to use the jukebox to skip forward to the next track.
• Have the CD Jewel cases be digitally addressed. Currently we use unique, arbitrary resistors for each case. This limits the total number of CD Jewel Cases that we can create (and there's a little fuzziness with the analog readings sometimes). We plan to embed microprocessors in each CD case, with a unique ID number that is communicated serially to the microprocessor controlling the entire jukebox. This way we can have a nearly unlimited number of jewel cases.
• We will use tri-color LEDs to make an aesthetic, color-changing "glow" to the jukebox (like a real jukebox!).
• We're still not quite sure how to allow users to program their own cases, but we will most likely create a special program and special piece of hardware to allow them to do so.

There are a few more pie-in-the-sky improvements (wireless, anyone?) that are planned, that we hope to get to.

Posted November 11, 2005 12:47 AM. Categories: Group Projects , Week 9 | Permalink