A Novel Interface for Audio Search

Abstract

In this paper a novel cyclic interface for searching through a song database is proposed. The method, which merges multiple audio streams on a server and broadcasts only a single merged stream, allows the user to hear different parts of each audio stream by cycling through all available streams. Experimental results on 21 users illustrate that the proposed interface requires less listening time as compared to traditional list-based interfaces when the desired song/audio clip is among one of the audio streams. The average search time for the proposed interface was 7.3 seconds, compared to 12.1 seconds for the traditional list-based interface when searching for a song which is included among the audio streams.