rec2taps

This utility extracts tap times from a input device recording synchronized to the start time of an stimuli device under the assumption that the recording has one channel where a loopback from the stimuli was recorded.

This tool was written as part of a proposed setup for recording tap times presented in "A simple and cheap setup for timing tapping responses synchronized to auditory stimuli." (Miguel, M.A., Riera, P. & Slezak, D.F. Behav Res (2021). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01653-y).

The tool works as follows: according the proposed experimental setup, a channel from the output is looped back into the recording device and recorded along with the signal of the input device where the participant performs the tapping. The tool takes as input the stimuli presented and the recording and analyses the signals to obtain tap times relative to the beginning of the simuli. This requires the tool to find which channel of the stimuli is also recorded in at which file of the recording. With this information, the tool can recognize which channel in the recording corresponds with the the stimuli and which is the input. The lag between the stimuli start and its start in the recording is found by maximizing the crosscorrelation between the loopback and the original signal (in the looped-back channel).

Next, the input signal is analyzes to obtain peaks. Peaks are found according to the algorithm in scipy.signal.find_peaks by detectecting peaks with a minimum prominence and distance between the peaks. These parameters can be configured (see rec2taps -h).

Installation

• From pypi:

    pip install m2-rec2taps

• From sources:

    git clone https://github.com/m2march/rec2taps.git
    cd rec2taps
    python setup.py install

Usage

rec2taps stimuli_file recording_file > outfile.txt

• stimuli_file is the original audio file played
• recording_file is the audio recording done during the experiment. Should have the same sample rate as the stimuli_file and have one channel of the stimuli recorded as one channel of the recording.
• The utility writes the tap times detected, in milliseconds, one per line, to the standard output. The example pipes the output into a new file.

Further options can be provided to calibrate the sensitivity and minimum distance between detected taps. Use the -h flag or more details.