TempoTask

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The latest version is TempoTask v1.02, released on 2/8/10.

TempoTask v1.02 - Windows - Linux - Mac (OS X)

Description

TempoTask is a short and simple experiment designed for my music perception class. It tests the user's ability to keep track of a tempo while being distracted by other tasks (such as keeping track of another tempo at the same time).

The results of each session are written to "results.txt" in the TempoTask directory.

Features

-Cross-platform

-Three separate tasks--one tests ability to maintain a tempo without distractions, one forces you to press space to the beat of a different tempo, and the third forces you to press space to the beat of a tempo which is similar (but slightly off) to the original tempo

-Results of each session are written to a file in addition to being displayed on screen

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What class was this designed for?

A: Stanford's Music 251 class, which deals with "The perception, cognition, and neuroscience of music".

Q: This seems rather uninspired and boring...

A: I might add in some additional tasks/distraction types in the future. Note that I wanted to make something pretty simple, so I borrowed a lot of the code from KeyBlox.

Q: (Linux) Where can I find the SDL libraries?

A: Most package managers should already have them available. You'll want the following packages: libsdl1.2debian libsdl-image1.2 libsdl-mixer1.2 libsdl-ttf2.0-0

Alternatively, you can grab them from these links:

SDL - http://www.libsdl.org/download-1.2.php

SDL_image - http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_image/

SDL_mixer - http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_mixer/

SDL_ttf - http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_ttf/

Q: How did you make TempoTask?

A: Short answer: C++.

Long answer: TempoTask is programmed in C++, and uses SDL with OpenGL. SDL_image, SDL_mixer, and SDL_ttf are used as extension libraries. The Windows build was developed in Visual Studio 2008, but the release build was compiled using MinGW. The Linux build was compiled with g++ under VMWare running Ubuntu 9.10 RC. The artwork was created in GIMP, and the sounds were made using FL Studio.

Q: Is the source code available?

A: At this time I don't have any plans to make TempoTask an open-source project.

Q: Can I redistribute TempoTask?

A: Please just link people to this page instead.