Anna’s Status Report for 04/01

What did you personally accomplish this week on the project? Give files or photos that demonstrate your progress. Prove to the reader that you put sufficient effort into the project over the course of the week (12+ hours).  

This week, I continued working on the visuals for the game mode. Right now, the format in which I plan to store the information on the target pitch is a json file, with elements consisting of dictionaries with length, target pitch, and lyrics keys. Each element contains what will be shown on the screen at a given time – so each song is divided into these chunks that are delineated in the json. The target pitch was generated by using Kelly’s pitch detection script, and the chunks were separated and lyrics were added manually. I think this method works for the scope of our project, where we only plan to make only so many songs available, although I may look into other methods.

[

   {

       "length": 160,

       "target": [396.79, 395.99, 395.41, . . . ],

       "lyrics" : "happy birthday to you"

   },

   . . . 

]

Right now, the sample I have working is “Happy Birthday to You”, and the user pitch is pre-recorded, as Kelly and I have not finished on integrating pitch detection to the web application. We are pretty close to complete, however a few bugs mean that we are keeping these parts separate, for the sake of the demo.

“Happy Birthday to You” has four chunks, each of which is a line in the song. Currently, for our demo, the user can start the song, and the visual cues begin, in sync with the music.

I did not use Kelly’s newer pitch detection script, that filters out really high or low frequencies (caused by breaths or pauses), I used the raw version, which you can see in the few peaks and valleys. Another reason for the user pitch (pink) deviation from the target pitch (blue) is that the user pitch is me singing, and I do not sing well.

I have also switched from using stepped line charts to traditional line charts with tension, for smoothing. The reason I originally used stepped line charts was we for some time thought that the target pitch would have much fewer data points, and a stepped line chart works better for that, as you could see on last week’s update. However, since each chunk contains 100-200 data points, a smoothed line chart was more appropriate.

I also made pause/play work with graphics.

Is your progress on schedule or behind? If you are behind, what actions will be taken to catch up to the project schedule?  

I am on track. As planned, I am currently working on the target pitch graphics, and in the process of integrating pitch detection and the web application. I am happy with the progress.

What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?

I will work on adding more of the songs in. If we complete integration between pitch detection and the web application, I will combine the audio recording + pitch detection with the target pitch graphics and playing songs.