AIRS 4th Annual Meeting: 2012

Title: Automated AIRS Test Battery: A New Methodology and Preliminary Data
Authors: Bing-Yi Pan (University of Prince Edward Island), Annabel J. Cohen (University of
Prince Edward Island)

Abstract

To standardize the delivery of the AIRS Test Battery of Singing Skills, an automated online
system has been developed. It delivers the singing tasks of AIRS Test Battery through a browser
with an interactive audiovisual interface, and records the participants’ audiovideo response for
each task. An authority module is associated with collected data to control user’s right of
retrieval, considering both confidentiality and collaborative sharing. Nearly 100 people across a
wide age range (4 to 87 years) have been tested in PEI, and a protocol has been created for
analysis of these preliminary data. The entire test will be translated to numerous languages and
dialects (some of the translations and transplants are already underway – French, German,
Cantonese, Mandarin) and so as to conduct testing worldwide over the Internet. The primary
goal of AIRS is to determine the cultural, universal, and individual factors that influence the
development of singing. The new automated AIRS Test Battery makes an important stride in
this direction. In addition, the system can potentially support other experiments requiring online audio or audiovisual recording.