The Adaptive Use Musical Instruments (AUMI) software interface enables the user to play sounds and musical phrases through movement and gestures. This is an entry to improvisation rather than "hitting the right notes" or playing set pieces of music. Instead, the software uses music as a way for participants to express a range of affects, both by themselves and in response to, or in conversation with, others.
The original focus of the AUMI interface was on children with profound disabilities and their teachers, therapists, caregivers, and families. In taking these participants as its starting point the project attempts to make musical improvisation and collaboration accessible to the widest possible range of individuals and communities. This approach also opens up the possibility of learning more about the relations between ability, the fullest possible range of bodies and minds, creativity and improvisation, from within a cultural context that does not always acknowledge or accept people with disabilities. The AUMI user base includes adults with and without disabilities, seniors, participants of independent living centers, artists with and without disabilities, and participants of mixed-ability, cross-generational community jam sessions, and many others.
AUMI continues to be revised and improved with feedback from anyone who uses it. We want to hear from you. Send feedback to info@aumiapp.com .
AUMI for iOS was developed for the Deep Listening Institute by Henry Lowengard, and adapted from the desktop version of AUMI, which is also available for download from aumiapp.com
AUMI websites:
You can get software support by emailing: info@aumiapp.com
This link points to a PDF copy of these instructions. You can export them to iBooks or print them out for reference.
AUMI was developed with the support of the The Gould Family Foundation,
Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice (ICASP), and
International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI).
Further AUMI development is supported by a grant from the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation.
This is AUMI for iOS version 2.2.0
Screenshots used in these instructions are taken from various models and simulations of iOS devices and may not look exactly like what is displayed on your device!
AUMI for iOS is also available for MacOs 12.4 and later on Apple Silicon devices in a somewhat untested but workable capacity.
This section is a broad overview of setting up and playing AUMI. Many more details are covered in specifically related sections.
SETTING UP THE AUMI PLAY SPACE
AUMI uses either the front- or back- facing camera to track motion to control which sounds are played. For this to work optimally, good lighting, a neutral background, and a steady support for the iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch being used are needed. The more neutral the background, the better AUMI will be able to find intentional motion. The Apple iPad folding case is a pretty good support, but you can also use commercially available stands and mounts, and in a pinch, some big rubber bands, a chair or a pole, and some creativity will also do.
Good lighting means your subject is not backlit, which will obscure details that need tracking for motion and face tracking and dulls colors for color tracking. Make sure there is no prominent coloration in your lighting, which can happen if the AUMI player is shadowed by a colored tent or window.
By turning on the "See Spots" feature of the Motion tracker, you can visualize what that tracker thinks is "interesting" and make adjustments so that an AUMI player's motion is emphasized. More hints for this are covered in the Motion Tracker section of these instructions.
PREPARING YOUR DEVICE
AUMI runs on all iOS devices - iPhones, iPod touches, iPad, iPad minis, iPad PRO - running iOS 9.3 and above which have cameras. You will need to confirm that you want to use the camera when a permissions dialog box appears the first time you use AUMI.
For a better experience, you may want to:
PLAYING AUMI
You can play AUMI right away when it starts up, or by using the Play AUMI tab bar button to change the screen to the play screen. You will see a live video image, a circle with a red dot in the center (the Cursor), and a number of rectangles (the "sound_boxes").
The Cursor moves when AUMI detects movement in the video image. When the Cursor enters a sound box, a sound plays. You can put the Cursor anywhere on the screen with a single touch, and play AUMI with a single touch to move around the Cursor just as you can with video tracking.
The sound boxes can be rescaled by touching the corners of the box that encloses them with two fingers.
Two important buttons are also on the play space:
CONFIGURING AUMI
There are four major sections that configure AUMI's processing and UI:
A Setup stores all the parameters for an AUMI session: the instrument, its looks, a fully configured tracker, and any timing and chords that are to be used.
Setups are maintained by using the Setup screen.
This includes naming, renaming, loading, deleting, and sharing setups either in a peer-to-peer fashion or as a shared document.
AUMI has the ability to store some data associated with its use, and export this data as CSV files to be used with reporting software. This reporting is associated with the Setup name, which could be set to name a user and a session name for particular tests, and other metadata useful in data in making the reports.
By default, all reporting is disabled. If you are considering the use of reports, please see the LEGAL document. If you are not interested in reporting, you can leave the metadata information spaces blank.
The name is also used to identify saved instrument _setups. If you have already saved some setups, you can load one from a list with the "List Setups" button.
The Setup page in no way affects the ability to play AUMI, nor is this information sent to any server.
AUMI can refine the way it turns the Cursor position relative to the sound_boxes into sound. Read the _Instruments section to find out more.
SOME TIPS AND HINTSSome AUMI users are only capable of extremely limited voluntary motion. AUMI can be adjusted to accommodate their needs in a number of ways:
As of iOS11 and Yosemite (Mac OS X 10.10) or later on a Mac OS system, you can record directly from a connected iPhone or iPad by using the QuickTime Player app. Simply select "New Movie Recording" and in the on-screen control, pick the devices name in the drop down menu (the "v") for both video and audio. Then record and trim as usual.
If you have another kind of computer that can record from an HDMI stream, you might be able to do it by using hardware: an HDMI adapter and cable to a video recording device. Modern iPads and iPhones can transmit video and audio over WiFi to an AirPlay(™ Apple) equipped device, such as a flat screen TV or video recorder.
In MacOS Ventura and later, there is built in AirPlay emulation on your Mac. See "AirPlay Receiver" in the "AirDrop & Handoff" section of the System Setting menu. There is also AirPlay emulating software for older versions and other operating systems: the device transmits video (and audio) over to a computer that can pick it up and record it, using a program called AirServer, among others. Sometimes it's a little finicky, but that's how I've made some earlier videos of AUMI.
I'd suggest just using an external video camera to record both AUMI and the real performer using it, which gives a better idea about what is happening!
This is a quick overview of the toolbar and interface buttons. Click on them for more details!
MAIN TOOLBAR | |
Play AUMI The interactive video interface. |
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Instruments Pick _Instruments, set the volume, pick a scale and other instrument related features. On iPhones, this is in the toolbar, and on iPads, this is accessed from the side menu. |
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MIDI Configure AUMI's MIDI playing features. On iPhones, this is in the toolbar, and on iPads, this is part of the instruments dialog box. |
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Instructions Leads to these instructions |
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Setup Load and Save AUMI settings like scales, instruments, video and timing, send and receive Setups to other devices, set logging metadata, enable logging to create reports, and read and export reports. |
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AUMI PLAY PAGE TOOLBAR | |
Looks Change aspects of how AUMI looks, such as colors, sound_box layouts, and sizes. This is launched from the "Looks" "button at the left of the main video screen. |
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Instruments Pick _Instruments, set the volume, pick a scale and other instrument related features. On iPhones, this is in the toolbar, and on iPads, this is accessed from the side menu. |
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Sound Order Assign sounds to sound_boxes. This is launched from the "Sound Order" button at the left of the main video screen. This button does not appear when using melodic instruments, which order sounds by using scales. |
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Video Camera and Trackers Settings Change the size, resolution of the video cameras, choose tracker, and adjust tracking parameters. |
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Configure Timing & Chords Change the options and speeds of AUMI's timing quantization feature. It also configures chords and arpeggios. |
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SILENCE or CLEAR MIDI Immediately stops the playing sound, whether it's from AUMI or via MIDI. Sliding off the button will lock it, it will rename itself to "RESUME", and a "SILENCED" message will appear on screen. Tap it again to resume playing. |
RESET Will load the Setup named Default. This will help you reset the system to a known state. You could also go to Setups and load any other Setup you like, but this is right there on the play screen. If there is no setup named Default, one will be created that is a Piano with a Motion Tracker. Touching this button will show an optional notice that warns you that it's about to reload the Default setup. You can cancel that action with "DON'T", approve it with "YES", or keep the optional notice from coming back with "Don't show this notice again". The notice will time out after 6 seconds and not approve the action. If the notice is set to not show again, it will approve the resetting action. |
AUMI works on iPhones and iPod touches, but is best on iPads, iPad Pros, and iPad Minis. Newer models will be faster, especially for tracking!
AUMI occasionally puts up notices which can be dismissed by tapping the "done" button. Most of these informational notices go away by them selves after two seconds, and the "optional" notices go away after 6 seconds. Notices about movement and event reporting, though, require a manual confirmation.
The official AUMI Web site at aumiapp.com is here, featuring more information, videos, support, news, and tips and hints.
On the Setup Screen, you can save and load _instrument and other configuration data, which together is called a _Setup , by using the "Save Setup" button and the list of already saved setups.
The Save Setup button saves the current instrument and its layout, colors, and sound order to a file named [setup name].aumi. It is in Apple "plist" format, related to XML.
Listening and Sending
AUMI can be configured so that you can send a Setup from the device it's running on to another copy of AUMI running on a different device. This allows one device to change aspects of another device without needing to touch the screen.
This feature works even if the receiving device has a screen in Installation Mode that can't be easily unlocked.
Listening and Sending is using Apple's "Multi-peer Connectivity" feature. That means all the devices involved should be on a local network, or have Bluetooth enabled.
You can designate a device to listen for setups by touching the "Listen for Setups" button. You can actually do this with up to 7 devices!
On another device running AUMI, you can then send the current Setup on that device to the listening device(s) by touching "Send Setup". You'll be presented with a list of "nearby" devices that are listening as it discovers them. Touch the device names of the devices you wish to send the Setup to. It should connect and change the Setup on the listening device, and put up a notice that tells you so. If it fails for some reason, there will be another notice telling you that.
AUMI can tell the listening device to load an AUMI Instrument that it doesn't have if it knows where to get it from. "Send Setup" has either a "smiley face" or an "X smiley face" next to the name if the Setup is using a user loaded instrument. If that instrument is an "AUMI Instrument" file loaded from a website, there will be a "smiley face", meaning that the receiver can attempt to download it from the original source if it's not on the device already. If there's an X, that instrument cannot be sent. AUMI will not send audio data in a Setup, it only sends the URL of where to find audio data.
If you send a setup that has User Sounds in it, it will work if the receiving device has those sounds installed under the same name. If the sender is sending an AUMI_Instrument that was loaded on that sending device, it will tell the receiver to load that instrument (because it remembers where it was loaded from), but otherwise, it will use the Piano.
Once the setup is received, it can be saved on the device that received it by tapping "Save Setup".
Another way to distribute setups is to use the "Share Setup" button. This is a way to send a Setup through messaging, email, AirDrop, or third party tools that share documents. Since they are special temporary documents, they are named with the suffix "_EXPORT.aumi". These in turn can be collected as setups in a cloud-based directory, or on a website, so that people using AUMI remotely together can easily load Setups used for their performances.
Reports
The Setup page is also where those who are using the reports feature may set up the metadata used in recording activity during an AUMI session.
The report button brings up an interface for exporting the AUMI report files. These files are a comma separated value files (CSV), supported by most spreadsheet software. See the reports section for more details. See the legal section prior to enabling the reports feature.
This is the main interface to be used while playing AUMI (iPad version).
Over a live video image, AUMI shows a set of rectangular "sound_boxes" and a circular Cursor, which is what initiates sounds as it moves into the sound_boxes.
You have the choice of either showing the live video on the screen, or replacing it with a neutral background. Some users prefer not to see themselves while playing, while others enjoy the visual feedback of watching their movements interact with the Cursor and Sound Boxes. Others go back and forth, sometimes turning off the video to reduce the distraction of trying to make a movement make a particular sound, in order to focus more on listening, or to turn the attention of a group from watching individual screens to relating to one another.
You can also set the position of the Cursor by touching the screen, and use this method exclusively for controlling AUMI. There is a tracker designed solely for use by touches, that does not use video at all, called the Touch Tracker.
For most instrumetns, when the Cursor enters a sound_box, the corresponding sound is played, and the box highlights relative to the volume of the sound that is playing.
For Loop instruments, the nearness of the Cursor to a Sound Box controls the mix of a sound loop playing in that box.
For Relative Instruments, the relative motion of the Cursor chooses which sound to play.
AUMI's Motion Tracker works by detecting and tracking the movement of "interesting" parts of a video image. "Interesting" in this case usually means high contrast and angular shaped parts of the image. The Motion Tracker works best when there is clear lighting, and a blank background behind the user.
The relative motion of the tracking_spots moves the Cursor on the screen. The Cursor has no direct relationship with the tracking_spots. This allows any motion it detects in the image to control the Cursor, and thereby initiate the sounds.
There's a toggle button, "Show Spots," ("Show Areas" for Color Trackers) in the Video Camera and Tracker Settings screen, that makes the tracking_spots visible when clicked. Click it again to hide the spots.
For the Face Tracker, little eye and mouth icons show the position of the eyes and mouth that it finds.
For the Color Tracker, you can see the areas that are the selected group of colors highlighted in paler versions of themselves.
The Face Tracker detects faces with machine learning and put the Cursor right on the face's nose. It's not as flexible as the motion tracker, but it is pretty fast - which might make it the right tracker for your situation!
The Color Tracker detects colors and put the Cursor in the middle of where the largest block of that color is onscreen. While it's very fast, you need to select the color to track by double tapping the screen and sliding your finger around to pick up variants of that color.
The Distance Tracker is the same as the Color Tracker, except the Y axis is replaced with value derived from the area of the largest block of color. That roughly corresponds to distance, and so morion towards and away from the screen (camera) can be used!
The Touch Tracker uses just a single touch to play the screen, with no video used at all. The video image is replaced with the background color.
You can change the size and shape of the rectangle the sound_boxes are laid out in by touching the screen with two fingers. The touch points move the closest corners of the top and bottom of the containing rectangle.
The layout of the rectangles can also be changed, except for Loop and Relative instruments, by using the Looks screen controls. The layouts are Horizontal, Vertical, Gridded, and Circular. The Gridded and Circular layouts enable users to play notes out of their usual order.
The Looks" screen controls can change the color, transparency, and thickness of the sound_box outlines, and the color, transparency, and size of the Cursor.
On an iPad, the "Instruments" button appears on this screen, while on an iPhone, that button is on the navigation bar.
There is a big red "SILENCE" button in case you want to stop the sound that's playing and clear the queued Timing based notes. While it's held down, the trackers and sound will be disabled and even loops will stop playing. This is called "Silent Mode". You can lock it in "Silent Mode" by sliding off of the button and then lifting your finger. When you let go, or tap it again if it's locked, the trackers will work again and the loops will play. While in "Silent Mode", the button label will change to "RESUME"
If the instrument is a MIDI instrument, this button will change its label to "CLEAR MIDI" and will silence MIDI notes.
To reset AUMI to a predictable configuration, tap the "RESET" btton. It actually loads a Setup named "Default". "Default" is automatically added to the list of Setups, but you can save any setup you like under that name, and the Reset button will load it.
You can hide and show all the toolbars, and make a completely clean (and safe to touch) screen by tapping with three fingers.
Note: in iOS 13 and on, a three finger tap is now interpreted as a part of a cut, copy, or paste operation. To do a three finger tap that will be recognized in AUMI, you may have to put each finger down slowly (one-uh-two-uh-three-uh) for it to be detected properly. This was fixed in iOS 13.1 and later!
When AUMI is used in a public installation there's a chance that you may want to lock its control interface. One way would be to put it behind glass, but if the device is exposed, it needs another method.
There is an Installation Mode which locks the screen from revealing the toolbars. This is enabled and disabled by touching down and holding two fingers - possibly resizing the Sound Boxes' bounding rectangle - while moving a third finger a long distance of more than 100 pixels. When enabled, it prevents a "normal" three-finger tap from revealing the controls, and also disables a four-finger tap from locking or unlocking the size of the bounding rectangle. This is designed to be a little obscure! It also locks the Sound Boxes' rectangle size, even when you go back to showing the normal interface.
There is an optional notice that warns you that it's about to go into installation mode. You can cancel that action with "DON'T", approve it with "YES", or keep the optional notice from coming back with "Don't show this notice again". The notice will time out after 6 seconds and "Not approve" the action. If the notice is set to not show again, it will approve going into installation mode.
On iPads, the Instruments screen is accessed with a button on the left of the Play AUMI screen. On iPhones and iPod Touches, it's in the tool bar at the bottom of the screen.
The Instruments screen is where you select an instrument and its properties, and set the general volume, and a few other options.
A big scrolling instrument picker is divided into five parts. Some instruments don't use all the parts, so they are blanked out.
Instruments are collections of sounds that AUMI can play in a number of ways. AUMI comes with a good variety of sounds, some conventional, some unconventional. AUMI does not currently play audio though Apple's Inter App Audio or Audio Unit interfaces, nor with Audiobus, but it can send MIDI to apps which do support these features.
Instruments are categorized into sections, each with its own icon and background color, accessed by the scrolling control on the far left. The instruments associated with those categories are correspondingly colored.
c2=36, c3=48, c4=60, c5=72, c6 = 84, c7 = 96
There are two sliders that set the range of the velocity. The Velocity High("High Vel" on iPhones) is probably more important. If you set it to a low value, it will take more velocity to make it play loudly (and it will be more sensitive!), whereas setting it higher means nearly any movement will be loud. The Velocity Low ("Low Vel" on iPhones) sets a level for the least velocity, so if this is higher than 0, you should always hear something, but it might be very quiet.
Normally, MIDI instruments will use the direction perpendicular to the layout direction the sound areas to control MIDI velocity. If the velocity switch is set on, the speed of the Cursor will be reflected in the MIDI velocity of the played notes. Even when the Velocity switch is off, the low and high values are used as the low and high values of the sound boxes. You can actually set the "Low" value higher than the "High" and it will work backwards perfectly well!
The Looks screen controls lets you change the sizes, layouts, and colors of some interface elements.
Pick which element you want to change from the "Cursor", "Boxes", or "Backgr. (background)" selector button.
By touching in the array of colors, you change the color of the selected element.
The box under the Opacity slider will show you the current color setting.
The "Opacity" slider lets you change the color's opacity (transparency).
For Boxes, this chooses the color that the sound_box is colored. Boxes are always transparent, but you can make them more transparent with the Opacity slider.
The top line is purely black and white, the line underneth shows very subtle shades of color!
The "Size" "slider is used to change these sizes:
The Lock switch locks the shape of the layout. This disables the ability to rescale the bound box of the layout with two-fingered touches. This switch can also be interactively turned on and off with a four-finger touch, if the screen is not in Installation Mode. The best way to do this is to put one finger down on the screen and use the other hand to do a three finger tap! This way, you don't accidentally resize the layout.
Another way to toggle the layout lock is to resize as usual with two fingers, then keep holding them down until more than 5 seconds has passed. This is also true if the layout is already locked, just touching and holding for 5 seconds will unlock it.
When the layout is locked, the Looks button will show a Lock icon on it to remind you of that fact.
The Video switch lets you choose between showing live video or just using the background color. It has the same function as the "Hide Video" switch in the video camera and tracker configuration dialog.
The layout buttons select whether the sound_boxes are laid out horizontally, vertically, in a grid, or in a circle.
The direction arrow is used to reverse the order that the sounds are laid out in for the Horizontal, Vertical, and Circular layouts.
Vertical
Horizontal
Grid
Circle
The Box Width slider can be used to make the sound boxes skinnier, thus putting more space between them. This way, it's easier not to play an adjacent sound box by mistake! AUMI will play the sound if you cross over a box quickly as well, even if it's only 1 pixel wide, so being skinnier is not a disadvantage that way.
When you are using the MIDI instrument, and you are not using the Cursor's velocity, and if your layout is vertical, the position between top and bottom of the row of sound_boxes is used as the note's "velocity," so that near the bottom of the grid is "low velocity" and near the top of the row is "high velocity". For a horizontal layout, left is "low velocity" and right is "high velocity"." These values are taken from the low and high velocity settings in the Instrumnet control.
This screen is accessed by touching the "Sound Order" button on the "Play AUMI" screen.
The Sound Order dialog allows assign specific sounds to Sound Boxes. It's only enabled for Percussion, Noises, Loops, and Relative Motion instruments, because the sounds of these instruments do not have to be in a particular order
This alternative order of sounds is saved with the instrument if you use the "Save Setup" button on the Setup screen.
The MIDI screen is included as part of the Instruments screen on iPads.
If the current instrument is a MIDI instrument, you can use these controls to select a MIDI channel and MIDI program settings.
AUMI is capable of generating two kinds of reports if this feature is enabled. If you are considering the use of the reports feature, please see LEGAL. These reports are in the form of CSV files. .
There are two kinds of events that AUMI optionally logs: Movements and Sound Box Events. These are enabled by switches on the Setup screen.
When you enable logging, you'll see a privacy notice in a red box appear with the text:
AUMI collects usage data on this device when this switch is turned on, data which is only stored locally on this device. You can switch this option off at any time. You can also either export or remove this stored data. For more information, read the Records and Legal sections of the Instructions.You can dismiss this notice by tapping the "DONE" button.
Saved Setups does not save the state of these switches. This is to make sure these switches are always set manually. This is true for remotely sent and initially loaded setups as well.
These fields open up when you choose to enable reporting. (iPad version) They are included in the csv files that the reporting makes, so that you can track several players (entered as part of the setup names) and programs on the same device. For instance, you could call a setup "Janet's Kitchen Percussion".
When movement logging is enabled with the optional switch "Log Movements", every 15 seconds, a record is cut with some information that may be used to make reports in an external spreadsheet program like Numbers or Excel. This information may be useful for tracking the progress of individual AUMI users in different programs at various institutions.
The movement file is created with a name in the format AUMI-YYMMDD-HHMMSS.csv, so that the date and time are part of the file name, e.g.: AUMI---121206-092201.csv
Also, when the program transitions from foreground to background, it will also log this event. In this record, the timestamp and identifying information are retained, and the position related fields will be blank, but the Scale field will say FOREGROUND or BACKGROUND.
There's a second kind of report that is enabled with the optional switch "Log Sound Box Events".
It tracks the entry and exit from Sound Boxes, and records the time spent in each one, and its file has a slightly different name from the movement report file:
AUMI-EL-[institution]-[program]-[date and time].csv
The Reports button will present you with a list of all the report files AUMI has made. They are ordered by date, and the two types of files are in different sections of the list.
All these files, are also available in the iTunes Document interface for AUMI. The main log file is also written whenever you leave the program.
Each record has the following information:
For example:
All the personal set-ups are also in the Documents Directory.
You can select them all and click "Save to..." to save them in a directory that you can remember.
They don't take up a lot of space, and you can also just delete them after you've saved them.
Front or Back Camera: AUMI can use the front camera or the back camera. The video image of the front camera is flipped like a mirror, but the rear camera remains the same.
Hide Video: This switch lets you control whether you see the live video on the screen or not. Some players may not want to look at themselves while playing, or you may just prefer a solid color instead of video for some performances. When Hide Video is off, the screen will show what the camera sees and display the live video image behind the Sound Boxes, controls, and Cursor. When Hide Video is on, the screen will show a solid colored background instead. This background color can be set using the Set Looks screen controls.The Cursor, sound_boxes, and tracking_spots are unaffected by this switch. Select the segment "No" or "Yes". There is an identical switch in the Set Looks screen control dialog.
AUMI's camera resolution is initially set low to accommodate slower devices, but on newer, faster devices, you can use a higher resolution if you like. The "Zoom" feature will let you zoom in to the center of the image, and reduce the resolution, thereby significantly lowering the latency of the tracker. In fact, if you set the camera to a high resolution setting, and zoom way in, you can more easily track the motion of eye blinks and tongues.
Resolutions:
Zoom: If the camera is too far from the user, Zoom can help make limited motion more effective. It also speeds up the interactivity a lot, because there is a smaller image to track!
AUMI uses software called a "tracker" to analyze the video images in order to know how to move the Cursor.
Next to the tracker selector is a toggling button SHOW SPOTS / HIDE SPOTS (SHOW AREAS/ HIDE AREAS for Color Trackers) that shows or hides the Tracker's tracking spots for debugging purposes.
These tracker settings may help you optimize AUMI when you have a faster iOS device, or want to experiment with the responsiveness of AUMI.
There's a debugging switch, "Color Box", that draws a bounding box around the largest contiguous area that matches the color set. It also changes the video's colors to show the limited color set that it uses for tracking instead of the vastly larger number of colors normally seen. This can help you pick out colors sets.
The Color Tracker is very fast and can be used with high resolution video! A good tip is to put a brightly colored sticker or button on a stick, a hat or a glove, and set it to track that color! Holding a colored ball or putting on a bright red clown nose also works well.
AUMI makes it easy to add pre-packaged sets of sounds as optional instruments. This way, custom sounds for a particular user or group can be easily installed on a number of devices. Since they are optionally loaded, they don't enlarge the original AUMI download or clutter up the lives of people who might not be interested in them.
A collection of pre-made AUMI instruments is available on aumiapp.com's AUMI Instrument page (http://AUMIapp.com/aumiinst.php). Just tap on one and it will ask to launch AUMI, and install it right away and let you play it. This page is constantly growing with a collection of unusual instruments and sound sets.
If you are connected to the internet, these instruments are also easily available from within AUMI by touching the "More" button on the Instruments screen. Read about MORE here
There are two ways to delete a User Instrument: One is to use the "Delete Instrument" button in the instruments controls, or you can delete individual sounds in the Sounds Control. If you choose to delete all the sounds, the option to delete the whole instrument will present itself.
An AUMI Instrument can be prepared by the AUMI staff out of your sound files and put in this list for the whole AUMI community, just contact info@aumiapp.com! Or you can make one yourself:
zip
to aumiinst
.
zip
to aumiinst
.
/usr/bin/tar --exclude ".DS_Store" -vczf "$1.aumiinst" "$1"
<a href="aumiinst://path/to/whatever.aumiinst">Whatever</a>
Somewhat adventurous AUMI users or administrators can add their own sounds into AUMI in a limited fashion.
36.mp3, 37.mp3, 38.mp3,
etc.
Many apps like "Audio Share" or other editing, recording, and synthesis programs, have a sharing button that can send a sound file to other programs. AUMI is now a destination for this kind of sharing.
The supported sound formats are : mp3, aif, aiff, wav, and m4a
. I'd suggest you keep the sounds under 30 seconds long.
AUMI now can read extra metadata in a file included along with the AUMI Instrument sounds named "metadata.json
". If this file is missing, generic information is provided, but this gives a little more flexibility to the AUMI Instruments. At some point, all the official AUMI Instruments will have this metadata included!
{ "uiname": "Bamboo Clarinet", "desc": "Bamboo Clarinet in the Widow Jane Mine", "tags": [ "clarinet" ], "types": [ "melodic", "loop", "perc" ], "created": "20220613T194521", "icon": "\ud83c\udf8b", "author": "jhhl", "user": true, "source": "http://aumiapp.com/AUMIInsts/Bamboo%20Clarinet.aumiinst", "version": "1.0", "znotes": "melodic" }As you can see, it gives user interface names and descriptions, tags (that aren't used yet), a list of types so it knows what type of instrument it is, where the AUMIInst can be found online, an icon (usially an Emoji or two), and some other metadata that may turn out to be useful. The Icon and Description show up in the official listing for the instrument, replacing the generic icon for it.
melodic,perc,loop,rel
and so can make sure an AUMI Instrument can only be found, say, in the User Loops section.
The metadata file is future-proofed with a Version number string.
http://aumiapp.com/aumiinst.php
, which gets updated from time to time.This list has a lot of information in each line, and you can scroll through it, reorder it, or directly search for instruments.
There may be a case where you want to access an unofficial sound collection through the More Button. This is a bit of an advanced feature, since you need to set up the API call that provides thisinformation, but it is possible. Email info@aumiapp.com if you wish to try this out. Otherwise, you can always make a web page with saved instruments and setups on it that can load themselves into AUMI with a click , as long as there's an AUMI on the same device. This is detailed in the User Sounds and AUMI Instruments section of these instructions.
You can register for news about AUMI by clicking on this MailChimp link or visiting the AUMI website's "Get Involved" page at http://aumiapp.com/participate.php.
AUMI for iOS collects data about how the app is used. To learn more about what kind of information is being stored, see Reports. This information is stored only on the device AUMI is running on. It is not shared or uploaded to any service.
Using AUMI's reporting interface, these usage records can be reviewed and exported for further reporting needs, such as research on the progress of a group of AUMI users. The export can be done in a number of ways to any apps which accept text files. These records can have metadata included in them that can identify the user, program, administrator, and institution if the person filling out that metadata wishes. Each file can also be deleted from within the app.
It is the responsibility of the person transferring the data to ensure that the privacy of the AUMI Users is in accordance with the laws in their jurisdiction, and the wishes and consent of the people whose actions are recorded in the data which is being collected and retrieved.
A privacy policy document is currently under review. Contact us at info@aumiapp.com if you have any questions. A preliminary version is visible at:http://aumiapp.com/policy
AUMI for iOS was developed by Henry Lowengard for the Deep Listening Institute, now called "The Center for Deep Listening at Rensselaer" and headquartered in the Center for Cognition, Communication, and Culture. AUMI for iOS adapted from the desktop version of AUMI, also available from aumiapp.com.
Thanks to Pauline Oliveros, Leaf Miller, Jaclyn Heyen, Emily Halstein, Lisa Barnard Kelley, and Al Margolis of DLI, and the AUMI desktop developers:
Zane Van Duzen,
Zevin Polzin,
Doug Van Nort,
Ian Hattwick,
Aaron Krajeski,
Ivan de Almeida Soares Franco,
John Sullivan
For the AUMI Consortium: Prof. Sherrie Tucker (University of Kansas), Prof. Eric Lewis (McGill University, Montreal), Thomas Cuifo (Mt. Holyoke), Dr. Ellen Waterman, Gillian Siddall, and Jesse Stewart.
For Rensselaer, thanks to Prof. Jonas Braasch, Prof. Tomie Hahn, and Dean Mary Simoni, John Fisher.
Some audio was generously provided by these musicians:
Copyright (c) 2010-2015, Sam Soffes, https://soff.es Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
AUMI websites:
AUMI © 2012-2014 Deep Listening Institute, Ltd., and 2015-2021, Center For Deep Listening at Rensselaer
Developed by Henry Lowengard
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