A coworker of mine shared an experience she had in college a while back.
Many years ago, for a course project, she proposed software that would allow you to tag songs and get information about it. Perfect for identifying that obscure song at a bar. The professor told her, flat out, it was impossible. He explained his reasoning and then suggested she work on another project.
All of this came to light when I showed her Shazam. Her first words were "I KNEW IT WAS POSSIBLE!"
That's not going to be useful for identifying that obscure song at the bar, is it?
The original post is pretty unspecific. Did the professor claim that creating a general system with a large database is impossible? That it's impossible as a term project? That creating a proof of concept system with 3 GB of music from your personal collection is impossible? That simply identifying a song given a part of it and the source file is impossible?
Many years ago, for a course project, she proposed software that would allow you to tag songs and get information about it. Perfect for identifying that obscure song at a bar. The professor told her, flat out, it was impossible. He explained his reasoning and then suggested she work on another project.
All of this came to light when I showed her Shazam. Her first words were "I KNEW IT WAS POSSIBLE!"