niallabrown

21st August 2005 18:04 UTC

Help needed, new AVS for profoundly disabled
Hey,

I need someone who will program a new type of AVS that may plug-in to winamp.

I work in rehabilitation with children and adults who are profoundly disabled. I am hoping someone will volunteer to program an AVS or plug-in for winamp (or other program) that will remain motionless until it receives input form the microphone port, then starts to move based on the level of input it receives. The visuals would need to be fairly slow so clients with visual impairments can follow them, and need to be high contrsts yellow on black. Nothing complex is required just simple shapes, patterns and movements.

The AVS would be used to encourage individuals who have difficulty communicating vocally to make sounds or even speech.

I don’t know anything about AVS. If there is anyone who would like try, it would be greatly appreciated by myself and others in my field.

Any potential programmer should be willing to allow the AVS or plug-in distributed free of charge to others in the field and to be used by non-profit organisations. It would also be posted on a not for profit resource website (no adds).

If you are interested in the project please contact niallabrown@hotmail.com for more information.

Thank you all, :D

Niall

Warrior of the Light

22nd August 2005 11:41 UTC

I'll see what I can do for you.

Shouldn't be too difficult to be created in AVS.

niallabrown

23rd August 2005 00:36 UTC

Wow! You’re very generous.

One very important thing I forgot to mention is that the AVS would need to be very easy to install. Most people in the field are not very good with computers.

Thank you so much for your help,

Niall

Warrior of the Light

6th September 2005 20:01 UTC

Sorry it took so long, I've been kinda busy with school starting again and stuff.

I've attached two avs presets, one simple VU meter and a more attractive one.. Could you give me some feedback so that I can help you a bit better?

/edit: upload was messed up; I've put them on my own server:
click here

niallabrown

6th September 2005 23:44 UTC

Thank you
Thank you!, I am just starting back to school myself, I will take a look at these presets and get back to you soon. I really appricate all your work.

niallabrown

9th September 2005 01:15 UTC

Installing?
Hi, I'm embarrassed to say that I don't know how to install the files you sent. Where do I place them, and where do I go within winamp to use them. I tired several of the winamp plug-in directories with no luck.

qforce2

9th September 2005 02:21 UTC

I'd really like to contribute some AVS presets, but I'm a little bit busy right now. Is there any deadline?;)

If you got avs files, put them into
c:\program files\winamp\plugins\avs\
(or something like that)

Here's a brief tutorial on how to use these files (copied from the tutorial of my avs pack;))

---
1. TERMINOLOGY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some expressions used throughout the following quick guide are explained here.

Winamp:
The ultimate, freely available media player created by Nullsoft. Download here: http://www.winamp.com

Advanced Visualization Studio (AVS):
A popular enhancement (a so-called "plug-in") for Winamp to visualize music. "Visualization" simply means you get to see some nice pictures on screen which move according to the music you're playing. While music studios produce songs and graphics programs produce pictures, AVS allows the user to create his own visualizations.

Presets & Packs:
A single visualization is called "preset". They're usually bundled to so-called "AVS Packs".

AVS Editor:
This is the user interface of AVS for editing presets, and it's tree-like structured similar to Windows Explorer (or something like that): Each preset is made up of specific components displayed in a list on the left of the AVS Editor. The right side allows the "AVSer" to set several parameters of a selected object.


2. QUICK GUIDE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Start AVS:
Run Winamp and press Ctrl+K to open visualization preferences. There, select Advanced Visualization Studio. If there's no AVS, then you problably have Winamp's lite version installed and need to download the full version. Return to Winamp and press Ctrl+Shift+K to run AVS.

Set up recommended settings:
1) Open the AVS Editor by right-clicking on the Visualization Window and toggling "AVS Editor".
2) For watching in Windowed Mode: The status bar of the AVS Editor displays the current framerate, the size of the Visualization Window and the name of the current preset. Just drag & drop to resize the Visualization Window. Go to Settings -> Display in the menu bar of the AVS Editor and uncheck pixel doubling if checked.
3) For watching in Fullscreen Mode: From the options menu, choose Settings -> Fullscreen. Here, select a resolution from the popup menu as default video mode, ie 400x300@32bpp. Toggle overlay mode (may not work on all computers), set vertical screen height to 100% and uncheck pixel doubling if checked.
4) Go to Settings -> Presets/Hotkeys and uncheck the undermost box to stop random preset switching.

Watching presets:
Right-click on the Visualization Window and select the preset you want to watch. If there are any comments inside a preset, they will be displayed as "Misc / Comment" in the AVS Editor list. Left-click on them to view their content on the right side. To watch the preset in Fullscreen Mode, right-click on the Visualization Window and select "Fullscreen".
---

niallabrown

9th September 2005 03:19 UTC

AVS
Hey,

Thanks for the tips. I'm going to try that as soon as possible. I'm a type of teacher for deafblind students at a school and we are just starting the semester so I will try to get to things as soon as possible.

Definitely no deadline. I'm just interested in developing practical, free tools to help people who have disabilities develop communication that don’t gouge their own or they caregivers pockets.

This tool may be used by Intervenor’s, Teachers, Speech Therapists and possibly other professionals as they find uses for it to encourage the use of an individuals voice.

The Visualisation should be clear with easy to follow elements and patterns (i.e. slow and simple) when the microphone picks up the individuals voice. Using stark contrast like yellow on black can help clients with low vision follow the patterns. The AVS should stop quickly when the individual is not vocalising.

Making the program in Winamp is optional if it can be done as a stand alone program that is great. All successful attempts to build this program or plug-in will be distributed free of charge even if multiple people submit . This allows professionals to choose the program that will best work for their client as I’m sure each person will come up with very different results. Each submission will be promoted as your work and your name if you so choose will be prominently displayed on the download page and if you like on the program itself. If you do not want to put your name on the project it can be promoted as being developed by a volunteer or anonymous.

There is no money being paid to any party involved in this project. This includes no adds on the distribution website and no person or organisation or products promoted on the site.

Thanks to anyone who would like to be involved.

Niall Brown

niallabrown

10th September 2005 18:22 UTC

Sept 10
To: Warrior of the Light

I have successfully installed the .AVS files and i can see the presets in the vis window, but when I plug in my mic. it doesnt seem to move (maby youre not at that point yet?). The visual on Rotating Oscilloscope looks great! If you could change the green to yellow on black it would be exactly what is needed.

Thank you for all your work so far!

Warrior of the Light

10th September 2005 23:33 UTC

well, it's supposed to reeact.. does it react to music?
if not, stick the mic in the linein input instead of the mic input.

niallabrown

11th September 2005 00:11 UTC

Troubbleshooting
The presets do react to music I load (MP3) and look great. I have tried to use 3 different mic’s in each of the 4 line-in and mic ports on my machine with no success, I’m still brainstorming what could be wrong. Is there anything else I need to configure in winamp with regard to activating the line-in or mic ports so the program recognises them?

Niall

Boktor

11th September 2005 12:26 UTC

Maybe you still have to put the linein in the playlist?
Press <Ctrl>+<L>, this should get you a pop-up window.
Type: linein:// and click open.
You should get a "number" in your playlist called Line Input.
Press play and if the time starts ticking, you know its on.

niallabrown

11th September 2005 16:23 UTC

WOW
It's working, and its better then I ever could have imagined, the kids are going to go nuts over this thing. I have to say its keeping me entertained for a while.:p

Rotating Oscilloscope looks great and will totally serve as motivation for the kids to vocalise. If it’s possible could you make the vibrating line stay horizontal instead of spinning, this may be hard for some individuals to follow and they may miss the more subtle reaction to their voice. Other then that it’s perfect!

Does anyone know how to make an installer that is really simple to follow? One button if possible.

Copying the files to the AVS directory may be over some peoples head, and I would like this to be accessible to as many people as possible. I will also write instructions for activating the line-in port.

Also Warrior of the Light, please dont forget to give me your name so I can properly credit you with the devlopment of the project. :up:

Warrior of the Light

11th September 2005 22:34 UTC

I will update these presets asap, perhaps build some better ones, now I know better what you're really after.

Not tonight anymore though, it's 23:30 here at the moment and the alarm clock will go off early tomorrow.

My name? Luuk Spijkman.
I'll also build an installer for it, and document the linein thing in it when it's done.

niallabrown

12th September 2005 02:02 UTC

Thanks
Wow, your the best. Thank you. Feel free to put your name on the installer if you like. I will also put it on the download page as long as that is ok with you.

StevenRoy

24th September 2005 03:40 UTC

Here's one that I made, which may work well for this purpose... assuming it isn't actually too wild!

niallabrown

24th September 2005 15:07 UTC

Nice work!
Hey Steve, Thats cool, is it alright if I pass that around to other professionals in the feild of rehabilitation and deafblindness?

StevenRoy

24th September 2005 20:19 UTC

Please do.

qforce2

3rd October 2005 19:59 UTC

Okay, so here's my promised preset, finally. Thought children would like something like that :)

Please take a look at the comment to adjust the reaction on voice input, I just had no mic or voice files to test it.

My name is as follows:
name: Tran
first name: Nam Quang
usually written as "Tran Nam Quang"

niallabrown

3rd October 2005 22:02 UTC

Thanks to all of you!
Hey Qforce. That is very cool. Nice work.

I think that is probbaly enough presets for posting. Thanks everyone who contributed. I will try to have your work up on the site by Jan/feb when the new webpage is released to the public. In the mean time they will be well used by my colligues and I.

One last question for Qforce: Is it easy to put together that installer you used? How would I do that?

qforce2

4th October 2005 00:11 UTC

Re: Thanks to all of you!

Originally posted by niallabrown
Hey Qforce. That is very cool. Nice work.

One last question for Qforce: Is it easy to put together that installer you used? How would I do that?