Monthly Archives: June 2012

FieldDB: An on/offline cloud data entry app which adapts to its user’s I-Language.

FieldLinguistics, iLanguage, Machine Learning, OpenSource

iLanguage Lab is getting ready to launch FieldDB, a cloud based data entry app created for researchers at McGill, Concordia and University of California Santa Cruz. FieldDB is written in 100% Javascript and uses CouchDB, a NoSQL data store which scales to accomodate large amounts of unstructured data. CouchDB uses Map Reduce to efficiently search across data, a win-win for our clients. FieldDB uses fieldlinguistics and machine learning to automatically adapt to its user’s data. Most importantly, even though FieldDB is a WebApp that runs in your browser, FieldDB can run 100% offline. FieldDB will go into beta testing the first week of July. FieldDB will be officially launched in English and Spanish on August 1st 2012 in Patzun, Guatemala.

FieldDB launch in Patzún Guatemala at CAML.
FieldDB launch in Patzún Guatemala at CAML.

What is FieldDB?

FieldDB is a free, open source project developed collectively by field linguists and software developers to make a modular, user-friendly app which can be used to collect, search and share your data.

Who can I use FieldDB with?

  • FieldDB is a Chrome app, which means it works on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iPad, and also offline.
  • Multiple collaborators can add to the same corpus, and you can encrypt any piece of data, keep it private within your corpus, or make it public to share with the community and other researchers.

How can FieldDB save me time?

FieldDB uses machine learning and computational linguistics to adapt to your existing organization of the data which you import and predict how to gloss it. FieldDB already supports import and export of many common formats, including ELAN, Praat, Toolbox, FLEx, Filemaker Pro, LaTeX, xml, csv and more, but if you have another format you’d like to import or export, Contact Us.

What are the principles behind FieldDB?

We designed FieldDB from the ground up to be user-friendly, but also to conform to EMELD and DataOne best practices on formatting, archiving, open access, and security. For more information, see Section 6 of our white paper. We vow never to use your private data, you can find out more in our privacy policy.

Curious how it works? FieldDB is OpenSourced on GitHub

Spy Or Not: data update

Android, OpenSource

Thanks to all users who tried Spy Or Not, a gamified phonetics experiment designed to crowd source rating the imitation of UK British, Russian and South African accents. In two months since its launch the game has been installed by over 400 users on Android.

 

We were excited to see that localizing the app in Russian helped get us Russian speaking participants; 22% of all Android installs were in Russia as well as other Russian speaking satellites.

The Bilingual Aphasia Test: now available on Android

Android, OpenSource

Since last April we have put our Speech Language Pathology interns Émie, Kim and Catherine hard to work learning Git, Gimp, ImageMagick, Sox, FFmpeg, Praat, Eclipse, XML and Java to bring the Bilingual Aphasia Test to touch tablets. The Bilingual Aphasia Test was created by Michel Paradis as well as other members of the Bilingual Aphasia community world wide. The Bilingual Aphasia Test is a normalized test containing 30 subsections to diagnose and treat bilingual/multilingual Aphasia patients. The BAT is available in more than 50 language pairs.

AndroidBAT is an interactive OpenSource application of the Bilingual Aphasia Test (BAT) stimulus book. AndroidBAT is a ‘virtual paper’ of the original BAT paper version. Unlike a computer application, the AndroidBAT is designed to simulate the flexibility of the original paper BAT, with the added benefit of allowing for a diversity of data collection integrated directly into the test. AndroidBAT allows recording of eyegaze and audio during a patient’s interview, without visible external camera or microphone, while providing more analyzable data (e.g., eye-gaze, audio, touch, etc.) than the paper format. Data can then be easily synced or shared with colleagues. AndroidBAT works on tablets and phones.

Want to use the BAT with your participants? You can download the Android Bilingual Aphasia Test on Google Play.

Our interns also braved Javascript and built the Bilingual Aphasia Test Scorer which allows clinicians to enter the data gathered during the BAT and get a patient profile on competencies such as phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon, reading, writing, speaking, short term language memory and comprehension among others.

Twenty years ago we had two applications to score the BAT (Bilingual Aphasia Test), the PCBAT and the MacBAT. At the Academy of Aphasia annual meeting in October 2011 members of the Bilingual Aphasia Test community got together, and decided to make a web-based BAT scorer, that will run on any computer, on any mobile device, anywhere. Bilingual Aphasia Test Scorer on Chrome Store

Want to adapt the Bilingual Aphasia Test for your participants, or run similar experiments which collect eye-gaze or touch data? The Android Bilingual Aphasia Test is OpenSourced on GitHub