MPEG Maaate
The Australian MPEG audio analysis toolkit
MPEG Maaate (pronounce: ma:a:it) is a C++ toolkit to parse and analyse
audio data in the compressed domain by analysing MPEG-1/2 Layers 1-3 audio
files. It makes the encoded fields of an MPEG audio stream accessible (tier1)
and provides some content analysis functions like silence detection (tier2).
Source code is available under the GNU
General Public License.
MPEG Maaate is designed in tiers: the first tier implements the parsing
of the MPEG audio stream, the second tier implements the content analysis
on the extracted field, and the third tier includes any applications that
are based on the extracted content.
If you would like to add new analysis functions to tier 2, read the FAQ to get
an overview of the design and an introduction on how to add code.
Package content
The distribution of MPEG Maaate consists of:
- two C++ libraries implementing the API to MPEG Maaate (one library for each of the tiers 1 and 2) and a C API to access them.
- three C++ command-line interfaces demonstrating the usage of the APIs (one command-line interface for each of tiers 1 and 2) and how to use tier 1 for playback.
- two C command-line interfaces demonstrating the usage of the C-APIs (one command-line interface for playback and one for the use of tier 2).
In a separate distribution you may find a sample GUI interface to MPEG Maaate called
bewdy. It demonstrates a few of the abilities of Maaate (source code available soon).
Applications
We (CSIRO DMIS) are already
using MPEG Maaate for several projects:
- an application to detect sports highlights in video footage
- an application to calculate caption boundaries of videos
(caption = subtitle for the deaf)
- an interactive sound art installation with our artist in residence
We have many more ideas on what to use it for, especially around
the areas of audio segmentation, audio indexing, sound filtering &
retrieval, sound modelling, and audio navigation. Don't hesitate to
contact us if you would like to use MPEG Maaate for a specific purpose
and would like according functionality to be added
to MPEG Maaate.
Credits
The system was implemented by Silvia Pfeiffer and Conrad Parker (GUI) from the Digital Media Information Systems group, CSIRO (Commonwealth Science and Industry Research Organisation) Mathematical and Information Sciences Division in Australia. The group has worked on analysing MPEG audio since 1997. Other group members that have layed grounds for Maaate by performing MPEG audio analysis include: Stephen Barrass, Jordi Robert-Ribes, Brian Kim.
The code for tier 1 is based on the MPEG-1 audio reference C-implementation of the ISO MPEG working group. It contains some of their functions but has been redesigned from scratch with audio analysis in mind. A lot of code has been written to make the API as simple as possible.
Special thanks to Craig Lindley for drawing the Australian Mate.
Mailing-List/Contact
To be updated on new releases, bugfixes and the development status, join maaate@cmis.csiro.au by sending an email to majordomo@cmis.csiro.au containing "subscribe maaate" in the body and respond to the automatic mailer that majordomo sends back. In case of problems contact maaate-approval@nsw.cmis.csiro.au.
If you require more information, have found a bug, would like to help
in developing etc. you may also contact:
Silvia Pfeiffer
CSIRO, Mathematical and Information Sciences
Locked Bag 17, North Ryde
NSW 2113, Australia
Phone: +61 2 9325 3146
Fax: +61 2 9325 3200
last updated 10/01/2000
Silvia.Pfeiffer@cmis.csiro.au
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