comparison docs/SMC15/smc2015template.tex @ 222:49f35ece394c

SMC2015Paper: Added tiny bit about included scripts

 Various listening test design tools are already available, see Table \ref{tab:interfaces}. A few other listening test tools, such as OPAQUE \cite{opaque} and GuineaPig \cite{guineapig}, are described but not available to the public at the time of writing. 
 
 Many are MATLAB-based, useful for easily processing and visualising the data produced by the listening tests, but requiring MATLAB to be installed to run or - in the case of an executable created with MATLAB - at least create the test. 
 Furthermore, compatibility is usually limited across different versions of MATLAB. 
 Similarly, Max requires little or no programming background but it is proprietary software as well, which is especially undesirable when tests need to be deployed at different sites.
-More recently, BeaqleJS \cite{beaqlejs} makes use of the HTML5 audio capabilities and comes with a number of predefined, established test interfaces such as ABX and MUSHRA \cite{mushra}. BeaqleJS provides a number of similar features including saving of test data to a web server. The main differences are: BeaqleJS configuration is done through writting a JavaScript file holding a JavaScript Object of the notation. Instead our presented system uses the XML document standard, which allows configuration outside of a web-centric editor. The results are also presented in XML again allowing 3rd party editors and programs to easily access. Finally the presented system does not require web access to run, instead being deployed with a Python server script. This is particularly useful in studios where machines may not, by design, be web connected, or use in locations where web access is limited.
+More recently, BeaqleJS \cite{beaqlejs} makes use of the HTML5 audio capabilities and comes with a number of predefined, established test interfaces such as ABX and MUSHRA \cite{mushra}. BeaqleJS provides a number of similar features including saving of test data to a web server. The main difference is that with BeaqleJS, the configuration is done through writting a JavaScript file holding a JavaScript Object of the notation. Instead our presented system uses the XML document standard, which allows configuration outside of a web-centric editor. The results are also presented in XML again allowing 3rd party editors and programs to easily access. Finally, the presented system does not require web access to run, instead being deployed with a Python server script. This is particularly useful in studios where machines may not, by design, be web connected, or use in locations where web access is limited.
 
 A browser-based perceptual evaluation tool for audio has a number of advantages. First of all, it doesn't need any other software than a browser, meaning deployment is very easy and cheap. As such, it can also run on a variety of devices and platforms. The test can be hosted on a central server with subjects all over the world, who can simply go to a webpage. This means that multiple participants can take the test simultaneously, potentially in their usual listening environment if this is beneficial for the test. Naturally, the constraints on the listening environment and other variables still need to be controlled if they are important to the experiment. Depending on the requirements a survey or a variety of tests preceding the experiment could establish whether remote participants and their environments are adequate for the experiment at hand. 
 
 The Web Audio API is a high-level JavaScript Application Programming Interface (API) designed for real-time processing of audio inside the browser through various processing nodes\footnote{http://webaudio.github.io/web-audio-api/}. Various web sites have used the Web Audio API for creative purposes, such as drum machines and score creation tools\footnote{http://webaudio.github.io/demo-list/}, 
 others from the list show real-time captured audio processing such as room reverberation tools and a phase vocoder from the system microphone. The BBC Radiophonic Workshop shows effects used on famous TV shows such as Doctor Who, being simulated inside the browser\footnote{http://webaudio.prototyping.bbc.co.uk/}. 

 %</audioelement>}
 
 The parent tag \texttt{audioelement} holds the ID of the element passed in from the setup document. The first child element is \texttt{comment} and holds both the question shown and the response from the comment box inside. 
 The child element \texttt{value} holds the normalised ranking value. Next comes the metric node structure, with one metric result node per metric event collected. The id of the node identifies the type of data it contains. For example, the first holds the id \textit{elementTimer} and the data contained represents how long, in seconds, the audio element was listened to. There is one \texttt{audioelement} tag per audio element on each test page. 
 
+% BRECHT: scripts
+
+Python scripts are included to easily store ratings and comments in a CSV file, and to display graphs of numerical ratings or the test's timeline. 
+Visualisation of plots requires the free matplotlib library. 
+
 
 \section{Conclusions and future work}\label{sec:conclusions}
 
 In this paper we have presented an approach to creating a browser-based listening test environment that can be used for a variety of types of perceptual evaluation of audio. 
 Specifically, we discussed the use of the toolbox in the context of assessment of preference for different production practices, with identical source material.