“No More Reggaeton”: Developer makes a machine that turns off annoying neighbors' speakers using artificial intelligence

An Argentine developer was fed up with his neighbor playing reggaeton loudly, so he decided to take matters into his own hands with the help of artificial intelligence.

Ronnie Bandini was upset because every night he was listening loudly to his neighbor's favorite reggaeton music. While many people could ask their neighbor to turn down the music, Bandini solved his problem in a different way: by inventing a machine called “Reggaeton Be Gone” and taking advantage of artificial intelligence.

It's a box equipped with a microphone, a small computer, and an algorithm that detects when a reggaeton song is playing and interferes with the speaker it's being played on.

Bandini shared his story in a video that went viral. Not only does he show the device in action, but he also explains how to build it using off-the-shelf materials and code he wrote himself.

It claims to have first trained an artificial intelligence (AI) model to recognize specific reggaeton songs. To do this, he downloaded representative parts of this type and uploaded them to Edge Impulse, a machine learning development platform.

Once the AI ​​was ready, it was time for the hardware.The developer notes that he added a 3D-printed interface and a small OLED screen in a metal box. Inside, he placed a Raspberry Pi 3 and loaded the AI ​​model that he trained on it.

To detect the music, he added a microphone and wrote Python code to track it and send the sounds to recognition software.

“If the conclusion exceeds the recognition level, say 75% – and it turns out to be my neighbor's favorite type, the device sends multiple requests and packets [μέσω Bluetooth] “To the speaker, whose MAC address I have, in order to disable it or at least block the sound,” Bandini explains in a video posted on social media.

Its inspiration came from the TV-B-Gone, a remote control launched in 2004 capable of turning off televisions in public places such as stores, bars and waiting rooms. It was created by Mitch Altman, an American hacker and inventor.

“I realize that jamming your neighbor's speaker may be illegal, but on the other hand, listening to reggaeton music every day at 9 a.m. should definitely be illegal,” Bandini added in his video. His invention has spread widely, but he refuses to commercialize it.

With information from Euronews.com