Merge multiple MP4 files

I have been doing several long recordings with GoPro cameras recently. The cameras automatically split the recordings into 4GB files, which leaves me with a myriad of files to work with. I have therefore made a script to help with the pre-processing of the files. This is somewhat similar to the script I made to convert MXF files to MP4, but with better handling of the temp file for storing information about the files to merge:...

March 31, 2022 · 1 min · 168 words · ARJ

Digital competency

What are the digital competencies needed in the future? Our head of department has challenged me to talk about this topic at an internal seminar today. Here is a summary of what I said. Competencies vs skills First, I think it is crucial to separate competencies from skills. The latter relates to how you do something. There has been much focus on teaching skills, mainly teaching people how to use various software or hardware....

March 7, 2022 · 6 min · 1186 words · ARJ

Completing the MICRO project

I wrote up the final report on the project MICRO - Human Bodily Micromotion in Music Perception and Interaction before Christmas. Now I finally got around to wrapping up the project pages. With the touch of a button, the project’s web page now says “completed”. But even though the project is formally over, its results will live on. Aims and objectives The MICRO project sought to investigate the close relationships between musical sound and human bodily micromotion....

February 16, 2022 · 3 min · 595 words · ARJ

Edit video rotation metadata in FFmpeg

I am recording a lot of short videos these days for my sound actions project. Sometimes the recordings end up being rotated, which is based on the orientation sensor (probably the gyroscope) of my mobile phone. This rotation is not part of the recorded video data, it is just information written into the header of the MPEG file. That also means that it is possible to change the rotation without recoding the file....

February 12, 2022 · 1 min · 157 words · ARJ

Recruiting for the AMBIENT project

I am happy to announce that I am recruiting for my new research project AMBIENT: Bodily Entrainment to Audiovisual Rhythms. The project will continue my line of research into the effects of sound and visuals on our bodies and minds and the creative use of such effects. Here is a short video in which I explain the motivation for the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BFFfIydL5U Now hiring The idea is to put together a multidisciplinary team of three early career researchers experienced with one or more of the following methods: sound analysis, video analysis, interviews, questionnaires, motion capture, physiological sensing, statistics, signal processing, machine learning, interactive (sound/music) systems....

February 9, 2022 · 3 min · 467 words · ARJ

MusicLab receives Danish P2 Prisen

Yesterday, I was in Copenhagen to receive the Danish Broadcasting Company’s P2 Prisen for “event of the year”. The prize was awarded to MusicLab Copenhagen, a unique “research concert” last October after two years of planning. The main person behind MusicLab Copenhagen is Simon Høffding, a former postdoc at RITMO, now an associate professor at The University of Southern Denmark. He has collaborated with the world-leading Danish String Quartet for a decade, focusing on understanding more about musical absorption....

February 6, 2022 · 2 min · 295 words · ARJ

The status of FAIR in higher education

I participated in the closing event of the FAIRsFAIR project last week. For that, I was asked to share thoughts on the status of FAIR in higher education. This is a summary of the notes that I wrote for the event. What is FAIR? First of all, The FAIR principles state that data should be: Findable: The first step in (re)using data is to find them. Metadata and data should be easy to find for both humans and computers....

February 4, 2022 · 6 min · 1263 words · ARJ

Different 16:9 format resolutions

I often have to convert between different resolutions of videos and images and always forget the pixel dimensions that correspond to a 16:9 format. So here is a cheat-sheet: **2160p: **3840×2160 **1440p: **2560×1440 **1080p: **1920×1080 **720p: **1280×720 540p: 960x540 **480p: **854×480 **360p: **640×360 **240p: **426×240 120p: 213x120 I also came across this complete list of true 16:9 resolution combinations, but the ones above suffice for my usage. Happy converting!

February 3, 2022 · 1 min · 69 words · ARJ

One month of sound actions

One month has passed of the year and my sound action project. I didn’t know how it would develop when I started and have found it both challenging and inspiring. It has also engaged people around me more than I had expected. Each day I upload one new video recording to YouTube and post a link on Twitter. If you want to look at the whole collection, it is probably better to check out this playlist:...

January 31, 2022 · 4 min · 789 words · ARJ

Preparing videos for FutureLearn courses

This week we started up our new online course, Motion Capture: The Art of Studying Human Activity, and we are also rerunning Music Moves: Why Does Music Make You Move? for the seventh time. Most of the material for these courses is premade, but we record a new wrap-up video at the end of each week. This makes it possible to answer questions that have been posed during the week and add some new and relevant material....

January 28, 2022 · 2 min · 376 words · ARJ