I came across this post on Boing Boing about this new iPhone app, Chirp.io. This app allows you to select a photos, note or link and send an audio “chirp” that other iPhones can receive, and then decode the link.

“We’re a spinout from University College London Computer Science and we’ve developed a new data transfer application for smartphones (and more) called Chirp.

This is our thing – a technology inspired by birdsong and the principles of biomimicry.

We think it’s pretty exciting since the app has great potential, although it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Our plans include teaching the machines to sing.”

While it may seem odd to speak of analog and acoustic in these days of digital and electronic, I immediately saw one way to put Chirp to use — as a data, and/or advertising trigger for audio or video podcasts. I am going to do some quick tests to see if you can embed the Chirp codes into a podcast file, both audio and video, and see if they can be received and retrieved by the app on my iPhone.

Enhanced podcasts have never really caught on as they require either iTunes or an iPod to view the enhanced content and require a bit more production to create. With Chirp. you could include data triggers directly as part of the MP3 file. I’ll report back after a few tests.