This week I focused mostly on the tension algorithm. During our previous testing session before fall break, we noticed that our algorithm isn’t great for detecting tension in scales/ Hanon. In layman’s terms, our algorithm doesn’t work when the fingers are closer into the hand/ aren’t reaching as far.
During our session this week, I tried to mess around with values in our current algorithm to produce different results during scales/ Hanon and had little success. One specific issue did come up consistently with these two exercises—the algorithm would call playing not tense once the pianist has been playing for long enough, regardless of whether they were playing tensely or not. As a result, I have been rewriting/ writing several versions of the algorithm. One version I’m optimistic about automatically records a new neutral vector every so often, hopefully solving the issue above. I’ve also asked Dueck’s students to come up with some features of tension for me to incorporate into other versions of the algorithm. I’ll continue working on these versions this week. Note that this issue doesn’t come up with chords and arpeggios.
I also recorded video snippets to test with during the session. I’ll be writing some test routines to help resolve the algorithm issues.
I’ll also be working on reorganizing the code in the coming week. Mainly, I’ll be separating out the main camera landmark routine & tension detection. Currently, tension detection is embedded into the landmark detection loop. Separating the two would allow for multithreading, potentially enabling us to run our system faster. The code will also be more modular & easier to follow.
Currently, I’m not behind on writing/ testing the CV/ tension parts. However, our group is starting to fall behind on integration—I’ll be supporting Jessie with RPi setup & integration as needed.
Videos from this week’s testing are here.