A Meta-Instrument for Interactive, On-the-Fly Machine Learning

Rebecca Fiebrink, Dan Trueman, and Perry R. Cook

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract:

Supervised learning methods have long been used to allow musical interface designers to generate new mappings by example. We propose a method for harnessing machine learning algorithms within a radically interactive paradigm, in which the designer may repeatedly generate examples, train a learner, evaluate outcomes, and modify parameters in real-time within a single software environment. We describe our meta-instrument, the Wekinator, which allows a user to engage in on-the-fly learning using arbitrary control modalities and sound synthesis environments. We provide details regarding the system implementation and discuss our experiences using the Wekinator for experimentation and performance.

Citation:

Rebecca Fiebrink, Dan Trueman, and Perry R. Cook. 2009. A Meta-Instrument for Interactive, On-the-Fly Machine Learning. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1177513

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{Fiebrink2009,
 abstract = {Supervised learning methods have long been used to allow musical interface designers to generate new mappings by example. We propose a method for harnessing machine learning algorithms within a radically interactive paradigm, in which the designer may repeatedly generate examples, train a learner, evaluate outcomes, and modify parameters in real-time within a single software environment. We describe our meta-instrument, the Wekinator, which allows a user to engage in on-the-fly learning using arbitrary control modalities and sound synthesis environments. We provide details regarding the system implementation and discuss our experiences using the Wekinator for experimentation and performance. },
 address = {Pittsburgh, PA, United States},
 author = {Fiebrink, Rebecca and Trueman, Dan and Cook, Perry R.},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.1177513},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 keywords = {Machine learning, mapping, tools. },
 pages = {280--285},
 title = {A Meta-Instrument for Interactive, On-the-Fly Machine Learning},
 url = {http://www.nime.org/proceedings/2009/nime2009_280.pdf},
 year = {2009}
}