Web Audio Evaluation Toolbox (WAET)

Perceptual listening tests are commonplace in audio research and a vital form of evaluation. Many tools exist to run such tests, however many operate one test type and are therefore limited whilst most require proprietary software. Using Web Audio, the Web Audio Evaluation Tool (WAET) addresses these concerns by having one toolbox which can be configured to run many different tests, perform it through a web browser and without needing proprietary software or computer programming knowledge. In this paper the role of the Web Audio API in giving WAET key functionalities are shown. The paper also highlights less common features, available to web based tools, such as easy remote testing environment and in-browser analytics.

MUSHRA test on the WAET platform​

APE on the WAET platform​

Interfaces​

The Web Audio Evaluation Toolbox supports building tests complying to the following known standards:

• Audio Perceptual Evaluation – APE
• ITU-R BS.1534-1 (MUSHRA)
• ITU-R BS.1116-1 (ABC / Hidden Reference)
• ITU-R BS. 562-3 (Continuous Impairment Scale)
• ITU-T P. 800
  • Absolute Category Rating (ACR)
  • Comparison Category Rating (CCR)
  • Degredation Category Rating (DCR)
• A/B Testing and Pairwise [David, Herbert Aron. The method of paired comparisons. Vol. 12. London, 1963.]
• -50 to 50 / Bipolar
• ABX
• Likert Scale
• Rank Scale
• 9 Point Hedonic Scale

Download​

Source code and examples are available on Github.

References​

Jillings, N., Moffat, D., De Man, B., Reiss, JD., and Stables, R. “Web Audio Evaluation Tool: A framework for subjective assessment of audio”. In Proceedings of the 2nd Web Audio Conference (WAC-2016), Atlanta, 2016.

Jillings, N., De Man, B., Moffat, D., & Reiss, JD. “Web Audio Evaluation Tool: A Browser-Based Listening Test Environment”, in Proceedings of the 12th Sound and Music Conference, Maynooth, 2015.