~Proceedings ICMCISMCI2014 14-20 September 2014, Athens, Greece
Implementation and Evaluation of Real-Time Interactive User Interface Design
in Self-learning Singing Pitch Training Apps
Kin Wah Edward Lin, Hans Anderson, M.H.M. Hamzeen, Simon Lui
Singapore University of Technology and Design
{edward-lin hansanderson}@mymail.sutd.edu.sg,{hamzeen_hameem simon_lui}@sutd.edu.sg
ABSTRACT
We present a self-learning singing pitch training tool on
the smart-phone to evaluate the efficacy of the real-time
interaction mechanism for improving users' intonation and
timing, which are the most essential techniques in singing.
It consists of (1) an intonation level classifier, (2) a scoring mechanism to help the users know how well they perform, and (3) an interactive pitch training mechanism. We
stress the importance of our app's practicality, such that
it serves as a guideline for implementing and enhancing
similar singing training apps. Experimental results show
that the synthesized singing demonstration and the visual
feedback design are helpful and natural to comprehend.
Our performance evaluation method shows that the score
of user intonation improved by an average of 94.81% after
training with our tool.
1. INTRODUCTION
Most people learn to sing by imitating professional singers
while singing along to their favourite songs. Another popular method is to learn from singing tutorial videos on
websites such as YouTube. This learning process depends
heavily on the vocalist's ability to evaluate his or her own
accuracy. Hence, there is a demand for real-time visual
feedback assistance in training of vocal technique, especially the intonation. Much research work has already been
conducted [1, 2]. In a review article [3], D. Hoppe et al.
suggest that further quantitative investigation of the effectiveness of such visual feedback assistance is needed. They
suggest investigating the efficacy of various types of visual
feedback, and varying the richness of the information that
feedback provides, based on the user's singing skill. Another drawback of these tools is their accessibility. Most of
these tools do not have mobile app versions, they fails to
take advantage of the now ubiquitous use of smart-phone.
Several intonation training apps have been developed since the Android Market and the iOS App Store were first
launched in 2008. On the Android platform, Singing Lessons Voice Training [4] provides various demo videos and
tips for singers to improve their vocal performance, but
Copyright: 2014 Kin Wah Edward Lin, Hans Anderson, M.H.M. Hamzeen, Simon Lui et al. This work is supported by Multi-platform Game Innovation Centre
(MAGIC), funded by the Singapore National Research Foundation under its IDM
Futures Funding Initiative and administered by the Interactive and Digital Media
Programme Office, Media Development Authority.
lacks any mechanism to receive input from the user and
respond to it in real time. VoiceMatch's Sing Karaoke
Voice Tuner Pro [5] records the user's voice to analyse
his or her pitch range. Then it suggests songs that are
appropriate for their vocal range. This app also does not
provide any interaction mechanism. On the iOS platform,
Smule's Sing! Karaoke [6] provides an interaction mechanism for users to know whether their pitch meets the target
pitch. It has a piano-roll style notation system that scrolls
from the right to the left. Based on the analysis of the
user's voice, a slider-like indicator on the left moves up
and down. Users then learn whether their voice meets the
target pitch. They can also get feedback on the accuracy
of their timing by checking if the indicator stays at the position of the pitch line and whether the pitch line comes
across the indicator. Free Singing coach, songs, voice exercise, developed by sing sharp [7], combines the idea of
[5] and [6]. It provides the pitch range testing, and enhances the user-interface (UI) of [6] by adding a piano keyboard on the slider-like indicator. Thus, the users not only
know whether they meet the target pitch and follow the
rhythm, they also know which pitch they are performing.
Erol Singer's Studio - Voice Lesson [8] also provides the
pitch range analysis and the same idea of the interaction
mechanism mentioned in [7]. However, the performance
demonstrations of both [7] and [8] are played with piano
sounds, rather than with a singing voice.
In this paper, we present a singing pitch training tool on
the smart-phone to study the efficacy of the real-time interaction mechanism for improving user's intonation and
timing, which are the most essential techniques in singing.
Our main contribution in this paper being that
Design principles and implementation issues of each component of our singing pitch training tool on iOS platform
are stated and discussed. This may serve as a model for
implementing and enhancing similar apps.
In Section 2, we first discuss the design principles of our
singing pitch training tool, in order to define the requirements of the UI. The related technical issues are also discussed. In Section 3 we briefly describe some details of
our implementation. The user-experience, the user's performance, and the evaluation methods are stated in Section 4. Finally, several possible directions for the future
research are discussed in Section 5.
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