Reliability-Informed Beat Tracking of Musical Signals

Abstract—A new probabilistic framework for beat tracking of musical audio is presented. The method estimates the time between consecutive beat events and exploits both beat and non-beat information by explicitly modeling non-beat states. In addition to the beat times, a measure of the expected accuracy of the estimated beats is provided. The quality of the observations used for beat tracking is measured and the reliability of the beats is automatically calculated. A k-nearest neighbor regression algorithm is proposed to predict the accuracy of the beat estimates. The performance of the beat tracking system is statistically evaluated using a database of 222 musical signals of various genres. We show that modeling non-beat states leads to a significant increase in performance. In addition, a large experiment where the parameters of the model are automatically learned has been completed. Results show that simple approximations for the parameters of the model can be used. Furthermore, the performance of the system is compared with existing algorithms. Finally, a new perspective for beat tracking evaluation is presented. We show how reliability information can be successfully used to increase the mean performance of the proposed algorithm and discuss how far automatic beat tracking is from human tapping. Index Terms—Beat-tracking, beat quality, beat-tracking reliability, k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) regression, music signal processing. I

SILENCIO: Introduction of electric propulsion to small inshore fishing boats to reduce their impact in the environment

Human activities afects each environment, even the most remote, and the acoustic impact that these activities generate on the marine environment is not an exception. The Silencio project aims to developed innovative and sustainable solutions to reduce the impact of fsheries and shell-fsheries in ecosystems, mainly noise but also carbon footprint, by the assessment of the use of electric propulsion by small inshore fshing boat. Besides, the knowledge about the sources of underwater noise in areas under high fshing pressure will be improved by the characterization of the ambient noise in Rías Baixas. Further, the project will spread the idea of an environmentally sustainable, socially responsible and economically viable extractive sector.Peer Reviewe

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Entropy of gabor filtering for image quality assessment

A new algorithm for image quality assessment based on entropy of Gabor filtered images is proposed. A bank of Gabor filters is used to extract contours and directional textures. Then, the entropy of the images obtained after the Gabor filtering is calculated. Finally, a metric for the image quality is proposed. It is important to note that the quality of the image is image content-dependent, so our metric must be applied to variations of the same scene, like in image acquisition and image processing tasks. This process makes up an interesting tool to evaluate the quality of image acquisition systems or to adjust them to obtain the best possible images for further processing tasks. An image database has been created to test the algorithm with series of images degraded by four methods that simulate image acquisition usual problems. The presented results show that the proposed method accurately measures image quality, even with slight degradations

Cinema sound: A new look at old concepts

The use of third-octave-band equalisation for 'rom' correction and other compensations in cinema studios and public cinemas is virtually de rigueur. Nevertheless, the understanding of psycho-acoustics and audio signal processing has advanced enormously in the almost 40 years since the current concepts of cinema equalisation were introduced, yet some perhaps out-dated procedures still prevail. To some degree, this has been necessary to maintain the standardisation and continuity in the industry, but it has also limited the ability to make significant advances in soundtrack quality. Given what we now know, along with the imminent introduction of Digital Cinema, an opportunity seems to be presenting itself for taking a new look at the strengths and weaknesses of cinema set-up procedures. The responses of 30 Dolby certified cinema rooms, both mixing studios and public theatres, were measured at therecommended reference distance and close to the central loudspeakers. From comparisons of the near and far responses it has been possible to assess how much the direct sound in typical theatres is being compromised in order to meet the notional standardisation of responses. The ramifications of these compromises are discussed.<br/

A computer vision system for visual grape grading in wine cellars

This communication describes a computer vision system for automatic visual inspection and classification of grapes in cooperative wine cellars. The system is intended to work outdoors, so robust algorithms for preprocessing and segmentation are implemented. Specific methods for illumination compensation have been developed. Gabor filtering has been used for segmentation. Several preliminary classification schemes, using artificial neural networks and Random Forest, have also been tested. The obtained results show the benefits of the system as a useful tool for classification and for objective price fixing.Xunta de Galicia | Ref. FEADER2008-1