Methoden zur Analyse der vokalen Gestaltung populärer Musik

Although voice and singing play a crucial role in many genres of popular music, to date there are only few approaches to an in-depth exploration of vocal expression. The paper aims at presenting new ways for describing, analysing and visualizing several aspects of singing using computer-based tools. After outlining a theoretical framework for the study of voice and singing in popular music, some of those tools are introduced and exemplified by vocal recordings from various genres (blues, gospel music, country music, jazz). Firstly, pitch gliding (slurs, slides, bends, melismas) and vibrato are discussed referring to a computer-based visualization of pitch contour. Secondly, vocal timbre and phonation (e.g. vocal roughness) are explored and visualized using spectrograms

Developing a pragmatic evaluation of ICTs for older adults with cognitive impairment at scale : the IN LIFE experience

Implementing information and communications technology (ICT) at scale requires evaluation processes to capture the impact on users as well as the infrastructure into which it is being introduced. For older adults living with cognitive impairment, this requires evaluation that can accommodate different levels of cognitive impairment, alongside input from family and formal caregivers, plus stakeholder organisations. The European Horizon 2020 project INdependent LIving support Functions for the Elderly (IN LIFE) set out to integrate 17 technologies into a single digital platform for older people living with cognitive impairment plus their families, care providers and stakeholders. The IN LIFE evaluation took place across six national pilot sites to examine a number of variables including impact on the users, user acceptance of the individual services and the overall platform, plus the economic case for the IN LIFE platform. The results confirmed the interest and need among older adults, family caregivers, formal caregivers and stakeholders, for information and communications technology (ICT). Relative to the baseline, quality of life improved and cognition stabilised; however, there was an overall reluctance to pay for the platform. The findings provide insights into existing barriers and challenges for adoption of ICT for older people living with cognitive impairment

Developing a pragmatic evaluation of ICTs for older adults with cognitive impairment at scale: the IN LIFE experience

Implementing information and communications technology (ICT) at scale requires evaluation processes to capture the impact on users as well as the infrastructure into which it is being introduced. For older adults living with cognitive impairment this requires evaluation that can accommodate different levels of cognitive impairment, alongside input from family and formal caregivers, plus stakeholder organisations. The European Horizon 2020 project INdependent LIving support Functions for the Elderly (IN LIFE) set out to integrate 17 technologies into a single digital platform for older people living with cognitive impairment plus their families, care providers and stakeholders. The IN LIFE evaluation took place across six national pilot sites to examine a number of variables including impact on the users, user acceptance of the individual services and the overall platform, plus the economic case for the IN LIFE platform. The results confirmed the interest and need among older adults, family caregivers, formal caregivers and stakeholders, for information and communications technology (ICT). Relative to the baseline, quality of life improved and cognition stabilized, however, there was an overall reluctance to pay for the platform. The findings provide insights into existing barriers and challenges for adoption of ICT for older people living with cognitive impairment

A holistic decision support environment for web accessibility

This paper presents the architecture of a decision support environment for large-scale assessment of compliance against web accessibility recommendations and legislations. The proposed decision support environment aims at integrating, extending and further enhancing existing web accessibility solutions making them customizable to the needs of different stakeholders, transferable to different sectors in web and mobile environments, in order to minimize costs and development time by also increasing scalability and improving their accessibility and usability

Towards standardisation of user models for simulation and adaptation purposes

The use of user models can be very valuable when trying to develop accessible and ergonomic products and services taking into account users specific needs and preferences. Simulation of userproduct interaction using user models may reveal accessibility issues at the early stages of design and development, and this results to a significant reduction in costs and development time. Moreover, user models can be used in adaptive interfaces enabling the personalised customisation of user interfaces that enhances the accessibility and usability of products and services. This paper presents the efforts of the Virtual User Modelling and Simulation Standardisation VUMS cluster of projects towards the development of an interoperable user model, able to describe both able-bodied and people with various kinds of disabilities. The VUMS cluster is consisted by the VERITAS, MyUI, GUIDE, and VICON FP7 European projects, all involved in user modelling from different perspectives. The main goal of the VUMS cluster was the development of a unified user model that could be used by all the participant projects and that could be the basis of a new user model standard. Currently, within the VUMS cluster, a common user model has been defined and converters that enable the transformation from each projects specific user model to the VUMS user model and vice versa have been developed enabling, thus, the exchange of user models between the projects

ACTIVAGE - Interoperability layer architecture

This document is the deliverable D3.2.2 or D3.7 "ACTIVAGE Interoperability layer architecture" and represent the main outcome of the activity T3.1 "Specification of the open cross-pilot ACTIVAGE architecture", that is part of Work Package WP3 "ACTIVATE Secure Interoperability Layer". The present document is also tightly related to other WP3 task: T3.4 "Implementation of the interoperability layer" that integrates T3.2 "ACTIVAGE solution for security and privacy" and T3.3 "Building bridges to the IoT protocols and platforms". The overall scope of this deliverable is to present the ACTIVATE Interoperability layer architecture. The content of this deliverable can be summarized as follows: Section 1 describes the nature and the reason why this deliverable 3.2.2 has particular relevance for the ACTIVAGE project. Moreover, this section also set the objectives to the defined structure and organisation of the document, and notes the differences between the 2 versions of the deliverable (D3.2 and D3.2.2). Section 2 is an introductory section that provides a brief description about main concepts from the Internet of Things that are involved in the ACTIVAGE project. This section also addresses the potential of Internet of Things in the context of the Active and Healthy Ageing area that concerns the ACTIVAGE project. In this section, the objectives and proposals of the deliverable are explained in detail besides the challenges that must be confronted to reach the deliverable goals. Section 3 of the present document is dedicated to the IoT Platform Interoperability State of the Art. This section is fruit of an extensive research and organisational collective work, as it is described in the section below. Here the main objectives to pursue, such as the achievement of interoperability within IoT platforms, are explained. The definitions, terminology and main concepts of IoT platforms are detailed in a clear descriptive way and along with a summary of the main features of each IoT platform that is involved in the project this section represent a pivotal part for the semantic interoperability specification in the full project. Interoperability use cases of the Activage IoT Ecosystem Suite (AIoTES) are described. The last point of this section includes the architecture of the Deployment Sites. Section 4 in this deliverable addresses the Semantic Interoperability concept, and the AIoTES common data model is introduced. Section 5 presents the ACTIVAGE Architecture, on where the IoT Semantic Interoperability Layer is included as a core part of it, and its functionality and internal elements are detailed. All main components of the architecture are described in this section, as architectural building blocks. Also, the interfacing among different blocks is explained. The main objective of this part of the deliverable is shared whose first aiming to efficiently and effectively integrate the platforms and devices of the IoT-AHA Ecosystem and second to provide the guidance for deployment sites on procedures for such integration. Finally, the document ends with the conclusions and the future work