naturerecordists
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: Sound identification key

Subject: Re: Sound identification key
From: Rudy Trubitt <>
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2003 10:28:51 -0700
Doug Wrote:

>Creating a key is not the problem that I've encountered. I have tried
several times just to get started - it's the heuristics that I can't get.
For instance -

1. Is it a Song or a Call? Song - go to 2. Call, go to 3.
2. Is it complex (more than 3 syllables)? go to 5. Simple (less than 4
syllables)? Go to 6.


Here's an interesting parallel development. A friend pointed out an 
interesting web site: http://name-this-tune.com/

It's designed to identify melodies by their contour (is the next step 
up, down or the same?). This contour is encoded as a series of ASCII 
characters. Granted, birdsong is a lot more complicated when it comes 
to determining the "melody" being sung, but it's an interesting area 
for further consideration. Perhaps breaking down creature sounds into 
some sort of chunk/database might be possible, eventually.

The melody ID engine is based on "Parsons code." Here's a link to a 
BBC article on the subject, from which I quote the opening of below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A860663

>   We all know the problem. You hear a tune, but you can't place it. 
>What's it called? Who wrote it? Who recorded it? It may be so 
>familiar that it drives you half-crazy trying to pin it down. Or it 
>may be completely new to you, but you just love it and want to get 
>the record.

    If you are musical enough you might be able to write it down in 
music notation and show it to friends, or hum, whistle or even play 
it to them. But it isn't everyone who can do that in a way that makes 
it recognisable, even if your friends would just happen to know the 
details of the tune you are looking for (assuming they could 
recognise it from your tuneless whistling).

    Of course, if it was a word and you wanted to find out what it 
means or how to spell it, you could look it up in a dictionary. Even 
though a dictionary contains many thousands of entries, you can find 
what you want because the entries are arranged according  to that 
seemingly illogical jumble we call alphabetical order. Fortunately, 
the ABC was drummed into most of us in early childhood, and with a 
bit of luck we can still use it to navigate our way through a 
dictionary. But a dictionary of tunes?


-- 
      *--------------------------------------------------*
      *    ...  http://www.trubitt.com   *
      *--------------------------------------------------*


________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the naturerecordists mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU