STILL RECORDING AFRICAN MUSIC IN THE FIELD

Field sound recordings are an indispensable source of data for ethnomusicologists. However, to my knowledge there are no standards or guidelines of how this data should be captured and managed. With the progress made in machine learning, it has become vital to record data in a way that also supports the retrieval of information about the music. This article describes a model developed for field recordings that aims to aid an objective data gathering process. This model, developed through an action research process that spanned multiple field recording sessions from 2009–2015, include recording equipment, production processes, the gathering of metadata as well as intellectual property rights. The core principles identified in this research are that field recording systems should be designed to provide accurate feedback as a means of quality control and should capture and manage metadata without relying on secondary tools. The major findings are presented in the form of a checklist that can serve as a point of departure for ethnomusicologists making field recordings

Interest Points as a Focus Measure in Multi-Spectral Imaging

A novel multi-spectral focus measure that is based on algorithms for interest point detection, particularly on the FAST (Features from Accelerated Segment Test), Fast Hessian and Harris-Laplace detector, is described in this paper. The proposed measure methods are compared with commonly used focus measure techniques like energy of image gradient, sum-modified Laplacian, Tenenbaum's algorithm or spatial frequency when testing their reliability and performance. The measures have been tested on a newly created database containing 420 images acquired in visible, near-infrared and thermal spectrum (7 objects in each spectrum). Algorithms based on the interest point detectors proved to be good focus measures satisfying all the requirements described in the paper, especially in thermal spectrum. It is shown that these algorithms outperformed all commonly used methods in thermal spectrum and therefore can serve as a new and more accurate focus measure

The development of corpus-based computer assisted composition program and its application for instrumental music composition

In the last 20 years, we have seen the nourishing environment for the development of music software using a corpus of audio data expanding significantly, namely that synthesis techniques producing electronic sounds, and supportive tools for creative activities are the driving forces to the growth. Some software produces a sequence of sounds by means of synthesizing a chunk of source audio data retrieved from an audio database according to a rule. Since the matching of sources is processed according to their descriptive features extracted by FFT analysis, the quality of the result is significantly influenced by the outcomes of the Audio Analysis, Segmentation, and Decomposition. Also, the synthesis process often requires a considerable amount of sample data and this can become an obstacle to establish easy, inexpensive, and user-friendly applications on various kinds of devices. Therefore, it is crucial to consider how to treat the data and construct an efficient database for the synthesis. We aim to apply corpusbased synthesis techniques to develop a Computer Assisted Composition program, and to investigate the actual application of the program on ensemble pieces. The goal of this research is to apply the program to the instrumental music composition, refine its function, and search new avenues for innovative compositional method

Wireless multimedia sensor network technology: a survey

Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks (WMSNs) is comprised of small embedded video motes capable of extracting the surrounding environmental information, locally processing it and then wirelessly transmitting it to parent node or sink. It is comprised of video sensor, digital signal processing unit and digital radio interface. In this paper we have surveyed existing WMSN hardware and communicationprotocol layer technologies for achieving or fulfilling the objectives of WMSN. We have also listed the various technical challenges posed by this technology while discussing the communication protocol layer technologies. Sensor networking capabilities are urgently required for some of our most important scientific and societal problems like understanding the international carbon budget, monitoring water resources, monitoring vehicle emissions and safeguarding public health. This is a daunting research challenge requiring distributed sensor systems operating in complex environments while providing assurance of reliable and accurate sensing

Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 338)

This bibliography lists 139 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System during June 1990. Subject coverage includes: aerospace medicine and psychology, life support systems and controlled environments, safety equipment, exobiology and extraterrestrial life, and flight crew behavior and performance

Video Abstracting at a Semantical Level

One the most common form of a video abstract is the movie trailer. Contemporary movie trailers share a common structure across genres which allows for an automatic generation and also reflects the corresponding moviea s composition. In this thesis a system for the automatic generation of trailers is presented. In addition to action trailers, the system is able to deal with further genres such as Horror and comedy trailers, which were first manually analyzed in order to identify their basic structures. To simplify the modeling of trailers and the abstract generation itself a new video abstracting application was developed. This application is capable of performing all steps of the abstract generation automatically and allows for previews and manual optimizations. Based on this system, new abstracting models for horror and comedy trailers were created and the corresponding trailers have been automatically generated using the new abstracting models. In an evaluation the automatic trailers were compared to the original Trailers and showed a similar structure. However, the automatically generated trailers still do not exhibit the full perfection of the Hollywood originals as they lack intentional storylines across shots

Automated test suite–a validation package for mobile chipsets

With the diminishing sizes of transistors, it is now possible to incorporate complex systems on a single die. The chipsets used in mobile phone handsets are a good example of such a complex systems. The design, validation, hardware development and software development of such complex chipsets is an intricate task which also consumes lot of time. With the increasing competition, time-to-market factor plays a crucial role in the development of a product. There is a constant need for an automated platform which would help designers at various stages in the development process of a complex product with minimum efforts. Automated Test Suite (ATS) is an automated Diagnostic Test System that enables the users to automate, validation procedures for any ADI DBB (ANALOG DEVICES digital base band) chipsets and H/W platforms in a user-friendly environment. This software follows the HostTarget model ensuring easy implementation of test cases so that the user can concentrate on the testing module only. It provides good modularity and reusability with simple structure. ATS has several features, these are: • Communication between Host and Target via RS232 or USB, • Usable with ANVIL evaluation boards • Remote execution of test routines on target from host. • Enables h/w platform testing – can be extended for performance and characterization testing. • Backwards and forwards extendable to other chipset families and h/w platforms. • Provides ‘Help’ feature for all the tests to user. • Script based testing ensures customizable test routine development. • Test result log - HTML based details and summary of test results • GUI based test tool gives user-friendly interface. Debug tools have been developed for some of the Hardware modules (LED, GPIO). This project was implemented in three phases. First phase includes the formulating of ATS architecture and provide sample implementation for LEMANS (AD6900 MSP 500) DBB. The second phase is adding new platform DIONE (AD6722 MSP 430) DBB to the existing ATS. Third phase concentrates on designing and implementing new ATS architecture for efficient performance and to reduce development time for ATS