Development of an Extensible Software Instrument for the Analysis of Bioacoustic Signals

9876714TITLE：开发可扩展的生物声学信号分析软件工具摘要：动物声音的定量分析在动物行为的基础研究和应用环境中都很重要，例如濒危动物种群的声学普查。近年来，这类分析的主要工具是计算机程序，这些程序允许研究人员将信号可视化，并测量单个声音的时间、频率和幅度参数。这些工具的两个限制是(1)它们需要操作员手动选择要测量的声音，以及(2)它们不容易修改以结合新的测量或复杂的分析算法。这些限制已成为快速分析大量声学数据的关键障碍。我们建议开发一种用于分析动物声音信号的软件工具，该工具将克服现有软件包的这些限制。拟议的程序--这里称为“乌鸦”--将把用户友好的界面与先进的工具结合起来，使用户能够(1)自动处理大量声学数据，(2)直观地评估自动声学数据处理算法的性能，以及(3)扩展和定制该程序的能力，以纳入新类型的测量和分析。自动化和扩展Raven功能的关键是该程序通过公共定义的接口与外部程序通信的能力。可以用通用编程语言编写的外部程序可以对信号执行任意复杂的分析(例如，从背景噪声中选择信号、对信号类型进行分类)。然后，该处理的结果可用于直接测量或在RAVEN中进行交互显示。RAVEN将是一个改进的数据探索和分析工具，还将通过为生物学家提供对信号处理算法操作的见解来促进更复杂的声音处理工具的开发。

9876714TITLE: Development of an extensible software instrument for the analysis of bioacoustic signalsABSTRACT: The quantitative analysis of animal sounds is important both in basic studies of animal behavior and in applied contexts such as acoustic censusing of endangered animal populations. In recent years, the primary tools for such analyses have been computer programs that allow researchers to visualize signals and to make measurements of time, frequency, and amplitude parameters of individual sounds. Two limitations of these tools are that (1) they require the operator to manually select the sounds to be measured, and (2) they are not easily modified to incorporate new measurements or complex analysis algorithms. These restrictions have emerged as key impediments to the rapid analysis of large quantities of acoustic data. We propose to develop a software instrument for the analysis of animal acoustic signals that will overcome these limitations of existing packages. The proposed program - herein identified as "Raven" - will combine a user-friendly interface with advanced tools that enable users to (1) automate the processing of large quantities of acoustic data, (2) visually evaluate the performance of automatic acoustic data processing algorithms, and (3) extend and customize the capabilities of the program to incorporate new types of measurements and analyses. The key to automating and extending Raven's capabilities is the program's ability to communicate with external programs via a publicly defined interface. An external program, which can be written in a general-purpose programming language, can perform arbitrarily complex analyses of signals (e.g., selecting signals from background noise, classifying signal types). The results of this processing can then be used to direct measurements or interactive displays in Raven. Raven will be an improved data exploration and analysis utility, and will also catalyze the development of more sophisticated acoustic processing tools by providing biologists with insights into the operation of signal processing algorithms.