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Royal Caribbean tool transforms images into shareable soundtracks

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With Soundseeker, friends and followers can see and hear your life’s adventures
Royal Caribbean International has designed and built a first-of-its-kind tool that transforms travelers’ photos into an original, shareable soundtrack with a video to match.

Digital experience powered by AI

More than a year in the making, SoundSeeker is a groundbreaking, patent-pending digital experience powered by artificial intelligence. The innovative tool uses machine learning to seamlessly create original soundtracks based on the content of each photograph.

At www.SoundSeeker.com, users can upload three photos of their choice, and the AI analyzes them based on color, landscape, backdrop, emotion, body language and facial expression. SoundSeeker then turns them into a shareable and one-of-a kind soundtrack. Fans can follow along on Royal Caribbean’s social channels, by searching #SoundSeeker.

'People of all ages crave new ways to share their best experiences on social media. This unprecedented tool allows you to put a completely unique, multisensory spin on sharing those memories. Now friends and followers can see and hear your life’s adventures,' Royal Caribbean chief marketing officer Jim Berra said.

Berklee College of Music experts

Royal Caribbean teamed with experts from Berklee College of Music and technologists from around the world to create the song generator. Berklee leveraged music theory to create a roadmap for the tool that helps determine the musical pairing to photos, accounting for pitch, tempo and instrumental combinations, among others.

The contributors from Berklee’s Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship—an on-campus initiative that promotes entrepreneurialism in part by engaging Berklee students and faculty with emerging creative technologies—included electronic production and design chair Michael Bierylo, associate professors Ben Hogue and Michael Sweet, and assistant professor Jean-Luc Sinclair.

SoundSeeker uses machine learning, an AI technique that enables computers to simulate human intelligence and make decisions on their own without explicit instructions. The learning process entailed more than 600 hours in which Royal Caribbean and a team of musicians and technologists reviewed hundreds of music tracks along with 10,000 photos, matching each of the 2.5m combinations to one of 10 moods.

The AI in SoundSeeker uses Google Cloud Vision to identify objects, facial expressions and colors in a user’s photo by referencing the roadmap developed by the leaders in music theory at Berklee. SoundSeeker then finds the musical elements corresponding to each mood in the photo to compose a distinct audio and visual photo album.

Over 1m unique tracks

The Royal Caribbean tool is equipped to generate over 1m unique tracks, based on custom base tracks, composed exclusively for the cruise line. The customized tracks take inspiration from a wide variety of music, including '90s hip-hop, rock, modern and electronic dance music.