Noteworthy neural nets

EurekAlert.org

Computer scientists have developed an artificial neural network – which mimics the behaviour of clusters of brain cells – that can classify the musical style of a digital music file. The computer program analyzes the beat and tempo of a piece and assigns it a general music genre, much the way music fans already can.

Unlike ordinary computer programs, neural networks improve over time by learning from their mistakes. Once perfected, this new automated classification system will be music to the ears of music archivists with countless recordings to be filed.