Chris@80: 
Chris@80: # Piper
Chris@80: 
Chris@80: ## A protocol for driving audio feature extractors
Chris@80: 
Chris@80: Piper is a protocol for audio analysis and feature extraction. That
Chris@80: is, the task of processing sampled audio data to produce descriptive
Chris@80: output (measurements or semantic observations).
Chris@80: 
Chris@80: Piper defines a data schema and API that can be used for remote audio
Chris@80: feature extraction services, or for feature extractors loaded directly
Chris@80: into a host application.
Chris@80: 
Chris@80: Piper is intended to be used
Chris@80: 
Chris@80:  * as a programmatic interface for audio analysis and feature
Chris@80:    extraction methods for web applications and servers
Chris@80:  
Chris@80:  * to make [Vamp plugins](http://vamp-plugins.org), and feature
Chris@80:    extractors written in other languages such as Javascript, available
Chris@80:    through a service API or as loadable modules
Chris@80: 
Chris@80: The Piper schema is language- and serialisation-independent and the
Chris@80: API is transport-independent. We provide initial implementations using
Chris@80: JSON in Javascript and C++, and using Cap'n Proto in C++.
Chris@80: 
Chris@80: This repository contains the basic Piper schema. Implementations and
Chris@80: utilities can be found in related repositories.
Chris@80: 
Chris@80: ## Authors and licensing
Chris@80: 
Chris@80: Piper was made by Lucas Thompson and Chris Cannam at the Centre for
Chris@80: Digital Music, Queen Mary, University of London.
Chris@80: 
Chris@80: Copyright (c) 2015-2016 Queen Mary, University of London, provided
Chris@80: under a BSD-style licence. See the file COPYING for details.
Chris@80: