CINQby Quinten Stekelenburg
What if a bird could store your data? Sounds crazy, right? But imagine a storage system that is lightweight like a feather and eco friendly. That’s exactly what YouTuber Benn Jordan set out to explore and the results are mind-blowing.
Ben’s star assistant? A European starling nicknamed “The Mouth”, famous for its uncanny ability to mimic sounds with ultrasonic precision.
The idea was simple but brilliant:
If the bird memorized and reproduced the sound, it would essentially be encoding image data into its song.
Yes! When researchers analyzed ultrasonic recordings, they found that the starling had successfully copied a simplified version of the sound pattern transmitting about 176 KB of raw data through its call. Not bad for a little bird.
Ben explains that the magic came from specialized gear:
And here’s the kicker:
“If this were a proper audio-based file transfer protocol with 10:1 compression, that’s nearly 2 MB per second”.
Because it proves something wild: birds can store and share data through sound. Imagine setting up a speaker in your backyard and, in theory, uploading unlimited data into songbirds. That’s not science fiction anymore, it’s science.
Ben recommends affordable tools like:
According to Ben:
“The fact that you can, in theory, turn your garden into a living data center is insane.”
– no birds are harmed during the experiment and/or the writing of this blog –
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