Melody retrieval by self-organizing map with refractoriness which has robustness for fluctuation of key input

In this research, we propose a melody retrieval system by self-organizing map with refractoriness which has robustness for fluctuation of key input. In the self-organizing map with refractoriness, the plural neurons in the Map Layer corresponding to the input can fire sequentially because of the refractoriness. The proposed melody retrieval system using the self-organizing map with refractoriness makes use of this property in order to retrieve plural similar melodies. In this melody retrieval system, as the melody features, rhythm, tone and keyword (genre of music) are employed. We carried out a series of computer experiments and confirmed that the effectiveness of the proposed system even when the key input includes fluctuation.