Sound to numbers, numbers to text, text to display

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kamzky

Sound to numbers, numbers to text, text to display

in General Discussion • Other • 1 year ago

Hello everyone, I’m new here. I tried to find something similar to my question here in forums, and I found some topics which helped me get my head around learning processing.org. However, as this is my first endeavour into processing, I am struggling with pretty much everything. I’ve got a book from MIT and I’m going through it though, but it does not answer some questions I have…

I’m planning to do a live “video” installation as one of my project at the university. The main idea is to get the signal from the microphone, “translate it” into numbers (dB? Hz?), and then write some triggers like: fe. if x dB then display word1, if y dB then display word2, if z then display word3, etc. So the higher “the noise/input number”, the bigger the number, different word on the screen. I need around 50 different words for particular sound levels, it’s just like a interactive noise level scale ;).

I’ve got a part which gets the signal in and displays is as a wave, that is the part of the code I found here in forums (link: http://forum.processing.org/topic/beginner-user-minim-questions ).

import ddf.minim.*;
Minim minim;
AudioInput in;
int x = 30;
PFont fontA;
void setup()
{
size(1000, 750, P2D);
textMode(SCREEN);
minim = new Minim(this);
minim.debugOn();
// get a stereo line-in: sample buffer length of 2048
// default sample rate is 44100, default bit depth is 16
in = minim.getLineIn(Minim.STEREO, 1000);
// Load the font. Fonts must be placed within the data
// directory of your sketch. Use Tools > Create Font
// to create a distributable bitmap font.
// For vector fonts, use the createFont() function.
fontA = loadFont("Dialog-48.vlw");
// Set the font and its size (in units of pixels)
textFont(fontA, 56);
}
void draw()
{
background(0);
stroke(255,0,0);
// Use fill() to change the value or color of the text
// fill(0);
text("SILENCE IS VOID", 15, 475);
// draw the waveforms
// the values returned by left.get() and right.get() will be between -1 and 1,
// so we need to scale them up to see the waveform
for(int i = 0; i < in.bufferSize() - 1; i++)
{
line(i, 450 + in.left.get(i)*50, i+1, 450 + in.left.get(i+1)*200);
}
}
void stop()
{
// always close Minim audio classes when you are done with them
in.close();
minim.stop();
super.stop();
}

What functions should I look up to:

1. Get the “sound” into numbers (the way it’s done in puredata)

2. Link particular words to particular “number scales”

3. change the x and y positions of certain words according to the sound level input (that is more like a future question)

I’m also very sorry about not using programming terms, as I am very new to the whole thing. Thank you guys!

Replies(4)

calsign

Re: Sound to numbers, numbers to text, text to display

1 year ago

1.
You already have some form of number, because you're creating the visuals. Could you use that? Or are you looking for something else?

2.
I would suggest using an String array. Create it like this:
String[] words = {"Word1", "Word2", "Word3", "etc."};
Then, later on in the program, you can reference words and get the word at the corresponding sound level.

3.
This is the same idea; when you call text(), change the second parameter (the x value) to the input value.

kamzky

Re: Sound to numbers, numbers to text, text to display

1 year ago

Hello Calsign, cheers for your help, it got me on the right track with everything (at least I think so ;) ).

RE1: I managed to extract the number, and got to know some mechanics of processing, so I’m fine with using the in.mix.get(i)*10 for generating some input

RE2: Thank you for that, I managed to get it working (kind of).

RE3: I’m getting my head around this stuff as well, thank you for pointing that out, also the Processing Handbook is very helpful. But I am going to start tinkering with it after I get outcomes smoother.

However, here is how my code looks like now:

import ddf.minim.*;
Minim minim;
AudioInput in;
PFont fontA;
void setup()
{
size(1000, 750, P2D); // screen size
textMode(SCREEN);
minim = new Minim(this);
minim.debugOn();
// get a stereo line-in
in = minim.getLineIn(Minim.STEREO, 1000);
// Load the font.
fontA = loadFont("SansSerif-48.vlw");
// Set the font and its size (in units of pixels)
textFont(fontA, 48);
}
void draw()
{
background(0); // set the background black
float numbers; // variable called numbers
numbers = in.mix.get(0)*100; //get the microphone input
text(round(numbers), 50, 50);
text(numbers, 250, 50); //display the microphone input rounded to full numbers
delay(50);
String[] words = {"Word1", "Word2", "Word3", "Word4", "Word5", "Word6", "Word7", "Word8", "Word9", "Word10"};
if ((numbers > 1) && (numbers < 1.5)) {
text(words[0], 100, 100);
delay(125);
}
else if ((numbers > 1.5) && (numbers < 2)) {
text(words[1], 100, 100);
delay(125);
}
}
void stop()
{
// always close Minim audio classes when you are done with them
in.close();
minim.stop();
super.stop();
}

So everything is slowly getting there. I simplified the code a bit, got rid of unnecessary stuff. I don’t need the wave as I have the numbers in the corners. Rounded up and full blown. However as I got the numbers on the screen hoping I’ll be able to read from them, they appear on the screen just too fast. Is there any way to “smooth them out”, besides delaying the whole program?

Issue 1. How should I get around writing the if/else function to include the whole array, with increasing “sound level readings" (now it’s 10 items, but I’d like to have 25+ items in it). Is there a clever way of doing it? I mean, I don’t mind going through every single word, etc. But if there is one, it’ll definitely make the coding easier.

Issue 2. From the sketch, as it works, is there a way to actually display just one word from the array for a longer period of time (1s + fade out probably). So my question is similar to the one about numbers, how should I go about/what functions should I check to smoothen and/or add fade out for the displayed words?

Just wanted to thank you once again for helping me out. Kind regards!

kamzky

Re: Sound to numbers, numbers to text, text to display

1 year ago

I'm kind of stuck with this, could anyone help me/give a hint, please?

PhiLho

Re: Sound to numbers, numbers to text, text to display

1 year ago

Take a look at the Technical FAQ, some of your questions are quite common, and addressed there.

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