Humor: Funny TED Talk Spoof for an App that Turns Photos Into Music

Have you ever taken a photograph, just to look at it and be disappointed that you can only enjoy it with your eyes? Well, to your rescue is an incredible, fictional application called PicSong — courtesy of The Onion.

What does PicSong do? Simple, you select a photograph from your library, import it into the app, and it will automatically analyze the colors, subject, and file type to turn that photo into music, if you want to do that… for some reason.

Alright, alright. So, maybe PicSong isn’t a real app and maybe The Onion is trolling us with their version of a TED Talk. But, you have to admit, they did a rather fine job of keeping it serious enough to make it seem authentic while adding in enough sarcasm to let you know they’re pulling your legs.

But if you think this is a 100% spoof with no basis in reality, you’d be wrong. Not only have apps and services like this really been thought up before, there was actually a TED talk by a completely colorblind man named Neil Harbisson who literally hears colors thanks to the technology embedded in his skull.

So while the Onion spoof at the top does a phenomenal job making fun of the typical TED talk, and an app like PicSong offers more laughs than usability, Mr. Harbisson at the very least will attest to the wonder of hearing the colors that make up a photograph or painting.

(via Doobybrain)

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