TechFest Demo: Music Steering

REDMOND, Wash. -- Microsoft researcher Lie Lu admits that music steering is a slightly misleading name for his new technology. At it's core, the content analysis tool he created is really just a kind of smart shuffle for MP3 players -- one that combs through your entire music library and then makes recommendations based on example songs you feed it. Instead of trying to find a precise track, you can select any representative song that personifies the type of music you're interested in listening to. Lu's app will then analyze that song's tempo, the featured instruments, its musical genre and other factors and then spit out a list of similar songs. Lu says the technology is still in the development stages, but he's still planning on meeting with the Zune guys later this week. If they don't like it, Lie, I hear Apple also makes a music playing device.