Audio content-based feature extraction algorithms using J-DSP for arts, media and engineering courses

J-DSP is a java-based object-oriented online programming environment developed at Arizona State University for education and research. This paper presents a collection of interactive Java modules for the purpose of introducing undergraduate and graduate students to feature extraction in music and audio signals. These tools enable online simulations of different algorithms that are being used in applications related to content-based audio classification and Music Information Retrieval (MIR). The simulation software is accompanied by a series of computer experiments and exercises that can be used to provide hands-on training. Specific functions that have been developed include modules used widely such as Pitch Detection, Tonality, Harmonicity, Spectral Centroid and the Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC). This effort is part of a combined research and curriculum program funded by NSF CCLI that aims towards exposing students to advanced multidisciplinary concepts and research in signal processing.