Consistent sound

[Mike C. Fletcher]

Eben Eliason wrote:
> I, too, find this a very nice idea.  Not only does it encourage
> culturally appropriate sounds, but it simply encourages context
> appropriate sounds in general.  Right now there is a lack of audible
> feedback in a number of the games on the system, and said feedback
> would really enhance the experience, especially for kids.  This would
> give developers a simple way to accomplish this without having to
> locate, record, package, and play their own sounds unless they want
> to, which also saves some space.
>
> Of course, I too lack any technical knowledge in this area, but am
> interested to see where it leads.
>   
The basic concept seems to be that of a "system notification", as seen
on all modern desktops.  We'd need to integrate with Sugar and Bitfrost,
and implement the generic emotional notifications for games and the
like, but otherwise the implementation should be quite familiar.  That
should make it fairly straightforward to implement.  I have a request
from a "consulting" course at U of T to act as a client on a project for
one of their students.  I'll propose this as the project if people are
amenable.

Assumptions:

    * DBUS Interface
          o This lets non-python activities use the same interface
          o Python wrapper can be provided
          o A pipe-level interface might also be useful for games
            written by new coders (open pipe, write "happy 2.5s\n")
    * Sugar Control Panel extensions to customise the sound-scape for
      each user (just think how quickly many people just *have* to shut
      off the Windows start sound)
          o Alternately, a GUI on the daemon that allows for customisation
    * Visual Notification options when muted
          o For the deaf/hard-of-hearing/classroom use
    * Severely restricted environment for the daemon/service
          o Access to sound files, preferably just those in the default
            set(s) plus those explicitly loaded by the user into the
            application's work-space via the configuration tool
          o Access to sound hardware
          o Access to current volume setting (read-only, likely)
    * Support Localisation for default sound-sets
    * "Classic" Notification Set (window actions, system
      startup/shutdown, that kind of thing)
          o Likely taken from an existing free-software system to start
            quickly
    * Emoticon Notification Set (emotional content, e.g. for games) with
      intensity setting
    * Sound implementation(s)
          o GStreamer sources
                + OGG files
                + Wav files
          o CSound scores
    * Visual notification implementation
          o Will require some coordination with the Sugar peoples to
            provide a non-obtrusive "overlay" notification mechanism

Have fun,
Mike
> On 11/19/07, Samuel Klein <meta.sj at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> On Nov 19, 2007 12:31 PM, Gerard J. Cerchio <gjpc at circlesoft.com> wrote:
>>     
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I am just beginning to get involved with the OLPC so please forgive me
>>> if this topic is already covered. I am also new to python so my learning
>>> curve is somewhat steep.  I am attempting to build a go game activity
>>> starting with the connect_activity. I would like to produce sounds for
>>> various game play events such as victory, loss, atari, etc.  I would
>>> also like the sounds the child hears from the OLPC be consistent and
>>> culturally appropriate. I would posit that if all the activities made
>>> consistent "utterances" to the child, the value of the OLPC learning
>>> experience would be enhanced.
>>>
>>> I would like to suggest a way to give a this consistent localized sound
>>> personality to the OLPC through the csound object.
>>>
>>> I propose that there be a simple csound method:
>>>
>>>     emote( emotion, intensity )
>>>
>>> where
>>>
>>>     emotion is a string index into a table of localized sounds
>>>     intensity is an integer that regulates the degree of the emotion
>>>
>>> Sample emotion strings would be:
>>>
>>>     "win" - produces a reward sound appropriate to the locale
>>>     "lose" - opposite of win
>>>     "yes" - indicate acceptance
>>>     "no" - opposite of no
>>>     "warn" - indicate more thought may be required
>>>     "approval" - encourage
>>>     "disapproval" - discourage
>>>       
>> Maybe this covers more than just emotions; I have no comment on how to
>> implement this in csound & sugar, but it is a charming idea.
>>
>> SJ
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-- 
________________________________________________
  Mike C. Fletcher
  Designer, VR Plumber, Coder
  http://www.vrplumber.com
  http://blog.vrplumber.com