Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Research Article
Remote Vocal Singing Course Design Based on Embedded System
and Internet of Things
1
Conservatory of Music at Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 400030, China
2
Chongqing No. 47 Middle School, Chongqing 404000, China
Received 26 April 2022; Revised 26 May 2022; Accepted 7 June 2022; Published 24 June 2022
Copyright © 2022 Peng-Jiang Yu and Mao-Zhu Xiong. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons
Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited.
Distance learning, a new style of teaching, can create a strong sensation of presence through real and vivid communication. It is set
to reach a communication effect of deep impression and a lasting memory. It can also obtain students’ course learning records in a
timely manner. Students can adjust the teaching content through various learning feedback to meet the requirements of learners.
However, for those traditional courses that must be taught in person, such as vocal singing teaching, there is an urgent need to
adapt to the new distance learning model. In the teaching methodology of vocal singing, there are often high requirements for
equipment in terms of sound, such as radio, encoding, and playback. However, there are very few requirements for images.
Nowadays, the distance course platform cannot meet the basic content of vocal teaching. It is even more unable to promote
teaching according to the material and personalized teaching. Therefore, this paper proposes a remote vocal singing course design
based on an embedded system and the Internet of Things. The research paper meets the basic vocal teaching needs in terms of not
only hardware but also remote learning. It can improve student motivation. Combined with network technology, it greatly
stimulates students’ sensory thinking of learning. It also improves the teachers’ understanding of students’ singing skills and
personalized teaching strategies for different students with specified content. According to their own learning aptitude and
learning history, the system may select the instructional materials that the students have not learned. It may provide pupils with
the best learning option based on their past selection records. Distance education may give a tailored interface using artificial
intelligence. In conclusion, the distance learning system based on the AI networks project is feasible.
connection by relying on the social elements provided by the (a) The current hardware equipment has been made
platform, such as the course discussion forum. Through this more suitable for vocal singing instructions by
feedback information, teachers can adjust online teaching to updating it using embedded and IoT systems.
meet the requirements of learners. In addition, the course (b) We designed a special distance learning course for
learning records of students are available on the online vocal singing and introduced one-to-one and one-
platform in a timely manner, such as the number of visits to to-many teaching methods into the course, making
teaching materials, page entry time, page stay time, page the course more suitable for distance learning.
leave time, login times, and basic user statistics. The sum-
(c) We introduced an objective teaching evaluation
mary of the study on the interaction activities is of practical
system and added a feedback and interaction method
significance for guiding how to carry out effective distance
in the course design to facilitate students’ learning
learning interactions and use the network teaching platform.
and communication. It will also help teachers’ to
In the vocal singing teaching curriculum, we regard vocal
improve the course.
singing teaching as a system, which includes a “teaching”
system and a “learning” system. The synergy between the After the introduction, the literature review of the paper
two subsystems of “teaching” and “learning” produces a has been discussed. After that, the method of the imple-
synergistic effect, that is, to achieve scientific vocal singing mentation of the embedded system and IoT-based system
teaching, “teaching” and “learning.” The synergistic opera- has been discussed in which the structure and efficiency of
tion of the two subsystems directly affects the effect of vocal distance learning have been explained deeply. Following
singing teaching. that, the simulation experiments and optimization results
However, in practice, there are other factors that affect have been discussed. Lastly, the research paper has been
vocal music teaching: from the “teaching” system, teachers’ concluded.
factors that affect the effect of vocal singing teaching are
teachers’ own singing concept, singing method, singing 2. Related Work
level, teaching technology level, teachers’ educational values,
teaching theory, cultural background, personality charm, Embedded systems and the Internet of Things are a very
and so on; from the “learning” system, the factors that affect extensive field in the research and development area at
the effect of vocal singing teaching from the students’ side present. Previously, a number of researchers have expressed
are students’ physical quality, voice condition, basic musical their piece of work on vocal music teaching and practices to
quality and cultivation, students’ intellectual status, make it feasible for the learners to take advantage of it. In this
knowledge structure, artistic intuition differences, person- section, some of the related work has been highlighted in the
ality characteristics, emotional state, and emotional following.
intelligence.
These factors cannot be fully demonstrated in the current
distance education platform because the traditional teaching 2.1. Current Status of Vocal Performance Teaching. First, the
of vocal singing is a bilateral activity between teachers and basic singing skills of students need to be further
students, the reliance on equipment and curriculum design strengthened. At the present stage, when it comes to the
is very strong, and the equipment has a direct impact on both singing skills of students of popular vocal music in colleges
teachers’ “teaching” and students’ “learning.” The equip- and universities, it becomes difficult to recognize them. A
ment has a direct impact on both the teacher’s “teaching” large proportion of students have weakened the practice of
and the students’ “learning,” and the professional music and basic skills with the depth of vocal singing teaching content.
recording equipment directly affects the effect of teaching. This lack of attention directly affects the singing skills of
Embedded systems and software application is a very students. The practice of fundamental skills is intended to
popular research area at present. An embedded system is a accompany the whole professional learning process, which is
class of specialized computer systems based on modern an important component of popular vocal music teaching
computer technology. They are both application-centered [4]. Second, the pop vocal singing performance fluency is
and application-oriented. They can be customized according poor. The rapid development of pop vocal singing styles
to system or user requirements such as environment, vol- causes an influx of new music types into the music field.
ume, power consumption, cost, security, and reliability. The Most of them are positive and sunny types, which makes
functionality and performance of the microcontroller can be teenagers more willing to use pop singing to express their
achieved by flexibly cutting hardware and software modules inner thoughts and feelings. Many current pop vocal stu-
and performing comprehensive optimization [3]. dents do not sing with their natural voice, resulting in poor
In this paper, a remote vocal singing course design based vocal performance fluency. This type of performance affects
on an embedded system and IoT is proposed. The study the aesthetic perception of the whole pop music work and
meets the needs of basic vocal teaching in terms of not only does not fully reflect the characteristics of pop music.
hardware but also the software requirements. It improves the Thirdly, the high and low tone processing skills need to be
teachers’ understanding of students’ singing skills and improved. In the current performance of many students in
personalized teaching strategies for different students with the singing, the process did not master the correct way of
specified content. The key contributions of the paper are high and low tone processing. In addition, the middle and
explained as follows: low parts are also an important part of the entire pop vocal
Mobile Information Systems 3
singing. Students are often accustomed to the way of singing The listeners will have difficulty with emotional
in the high register to deal with the middle and low parts, but resonance when enjoying songs. Most good singers
a single reliance on natural tone and pitch is unable to are professional in mastering and applying high and
achieve the desired singing effect, which makes the singer low notes in their staging. Effective learning of high
lose his voice and expression. This singer is required to and low notes is dependent on understanding the
integrate the bass and soprano singing skills and articulate principles of articulation. It is an important pre-
them in the singing impression in order to achieve a requisite for proper mastery of specific articulation
complete expression of the pop music works. strategies and techniques. In addition, teachers
should communicate with students as equals in vocal
music teaching. They shall create a classroom at-
2.1.1. Basic Training in Pop Vocal Teaching mosphere for students to perform easily and natu-
rally and encourage students to study the creation of
(1) Breathing Training. Pop vocal singing is usually based on popular music [6]. Traditional teaching focuses on
the combined thoracoabdominal breathing method. This emotional experience and penetration training for
breathing method requires the use of the singer’s mouth and students. It ignores the important foundation of
nose at the same time. The intercostal muscles move up with vocal music theory. This theory will lead to students
the waist expansion around the rib cage, while the dia- receiving subjective vocal education that will limit
phragm contracts down. The chest cavity expands around so the development of their personality in later singing.
that the lungs can inhale a given volume of air into the deep As a result, attention should be given to the match of
lungs in the shortest possible time. During the performance, educational learning and students’ pronunciation
the singer’s breath control depends on the joint action of the characteristics in the vocal principle teaching. Stu-
abdominal and lumbar muscles. dents themselves should base on their own timbre
characteristics and choose their own suitable vocal
(2) Language Training. Bite and the correct way of spitting style according to the vocal principle. This method
out words largely affect the singing effect. There are two will improve their own emotional expression ability
types of bite, a soft bite and a hard bite. The application of and singing ability.
flexible penetration can naturally make the emotions pen-
etrate into singing. The key to biting and spitting is pro- (b) Improve the singing curriculum.
nunciation. Refining pronunciation requires analyzing the In order to let students experience a variety of styles
head, belly, and tail of each word and finding the connection of vocal works, teachers recommend a large number
between them. In terms of ensuring the consistency of lines of textbooks or music resources in their daily
and tones while singing, the pronunciation of each word courses. The perfection of curriculum settings largely
should be up to the standard to achieve the right amount of affects the effect of vocal teaching. The perfection of
front and back, looseness, and tightness [5]. the singing curriculum mainly has the following two
points. One, based on a large number of teaching
(3) Vocal Exercises. Vocal exercises are diversified in ways practice summaries, the value of students’ vocal
and means, and there is no fixity. The way of vocal practice learning materials and the role of teachers’ teaching
depends on some principle. Natural development protects reference materials are known to be determined by
the function and movement of vocal organs and determines the professionalism and uniqueness of textbook
the way of vocal practice based on the principle of teaching selection, so selecting professional and unique
and differentiation. The progress of vocal exercises should be textbooks is a basic requirement for perfecting the
easy at first and subsequently hard, from shallow to deep, curriculum, which can effectively promote the
with steady strength in a continuous tone. There are many healthy development of professional vocal education
types of vocal exercises, such as skipping, legato, length- [7]. Secondly, under the influence of the long-term
ening, and staccato. Teachers must make suitable deploy- traditional music singing style, the setting of pro-
ment in the relevant training level and expand the training fessional vocal music classes needs to match the
based on the original vocalization, regardless of how easy or teaching system with strong characteristics. Such
difficult they are. classes are divided into simulated classes, mini-
classes, and inverted classes, which have wide ap-
plication at this stage and can greatly promote the
2.1.2. Optimizing the Strategy of Pop Singing Vocal Teaching. realization of the professional development goals of
Optimizing the strategy of pop singing will help the students colleges and universities.
to learn and improve their singing technicalities. Some of the
(c) Improve students’ own cultural literacy.
strategies are discussed as follows:
Music teaching should not only provide students
(a) Let students master the vocal principle. with continuous singing skills training but also
High and low tones are important components of improve students’ cultural literacy. The development
pop music works. Sublimating music itself means of cultural literacy and musical aesthetic ability is a
coloring music, but without proper handling of high way to accomplish the goal of comprehensive lit-
and low tones, the whole music works will lose color. eracy. According to the students’ existing knowledge
4 Mobile Information Systems
User
Monitoring Module
Teaching Resource
Knowledge Base Database
Library
Password 3. Method
Teacher Student This section discusses the methodology used in this study,
which includes the methodical organization of several re-
log in search phases, as well as the thorough design and imple-
mentation of the embedded system and IoT-based remote
Figure 3: Student login screen. learning design. Furthermore, the components’ selection
and integration to meet the design objectives are detailed.
entertainment, intelligent security, and voice assistance, with
the following main functions: 3.1. System Hardware Structure’s Design. The key to the
(1) Remote users can access the WEB page through the remote learning system of vocal singing is to test the learning
public website and realize the interactive control of effect of students. It gives timely learning suggestions, thus
the server to achieve the intelligent management of recognizing the intelligence between learning and teaching
the furniture and electrical appliances. [13]. As shown in Figure 1, the base of knowledge, learning
module of students, teaching module of instructor, assess-
(2) Remote users can also use handheld devices (iPad, ment module, human-machine interface, and the system’s
cell phone, and laptop) of any platform to complete hardware structure are the primary components of the
the corresponding control [12]. system.
(3) In addition to the handheld terminal platform, local All of the elements are finished with the help of the base
users can also use voice control to manage their of knowledge. It is a unit that preserves the information and
convenience. The voice module program of this queries given to students and makes it easier for them to
system is set to control the command. The voice answer them properly [14].
system needs to be activated in the form of a
password before control.
3.1.1. Student Learning Module. The student learning
(4) In addition to course teaching management, this
module may correctly represent the learning ability and skill
system also has audio and video entertainment
level of students and gives a customized teaching base to the
functions. Through network technology, they can use
system. This module is composed of teaching coordination
online on-demand songs, videos, server downloads,
agents and several other agents. Different teaching agents
and other common Internet functions.
have the required knowledge for independent problem-
This system is integrated to complete a course teaching solving and as independent AI individuals. They are mainly
information platform with embedded WEB server responsible for specific teaching material presentation,
6 Mobile Information Systems
Student
Student learning module and teacher
Question
teaching module data storage
Module
Adaptive self-
study type FAQ Module
Data tagging
learning
Smart
Answer
Module
Data mining
Assignment
Submission Table 1: Parameters used for the experiment.
Item Numeric
Figure 4: Software function design.
Mainframe IPC⁃610L
Server i5 9400F
problem-solving, and providing instructive advice to stu- CPU AMD Opteron X3216
dents [15–18]. Knowledge sharing is achieved through a Microserver 8
collaborative mechanism. During this entire teaching pro-
cess, the coordinating agent is able to adjust the entire 3.1.3. Assessment Module. The assessment rules are used to
learning syllabus based on the monitoring data and the analyze student responses, determine the ideas that students
teaching strategies sent by the instructional management have grasped, and pass them to the learning unit of students.
[19]. The student learning module is shown in Figure 2. It employs artificial intelligence reasoning to create a
thorough assessment of students’ learning behavior, attitude,
effectiveness, and ability. The reasoning is based on data
3.1.2. Teacher Teaching Module. This module combines supplied by the student learning module and the instructor
knowledge about the structure of the course. It provides teaching module, as well as its rule base.
answers to students’ selection questions and supervises
students’ learning behavior. The model is a concrete measure
3.1.4. Human-Computer Interface. The Human-Computer
to achieve learning in an individual-oriented interactive way
Interface serves as a medium of communication between the
[20]. This module provides students with acceptable
students and the instructor. The system and the knowledge it
teaching strategies mainly based on learning requirements.
provides must be well known to the students. The student
Throughout the teaching and learning process, the teacher
login interface is shown in Figure 3.
can collect student feedback through the Internet as a way to
According to their learning aptitude and history, the
improve the teaching strategy database. At the same time,
system may pick educational items that pupils have not yet
the students can use their own reasoning mechanism to
acquired. It can also present the most suitable learning so-
provide intelligent guidance on problems encountered
lution to students based on their historical selection records.
during the teaching process [21]. For any system informa-
tion, the instructor’s teaching process is documented in the
teacher teaching model database. This is necessary in order 3.1.5. Functional Design of the Distance Learning System.
to document the teaching style and offer the assessment In the backend database server, the system employs SQL
module [22]. Server 2000 and Internet Information Server 5.1 as the
Mobile Information Systems 7
Web server
Distance education
network
...
information server and C# as the design language [23]. The instructional tactics that are tailored to their own knowledge
system uses a browser mode that is not limited by hardware levels. As a result, fair assessments of teaching and learning
and may be used to create cross-platform apps. It provides a are made in order to improve students’ ability to learn
variety of online learning support services for students, independently. Distance education can give a tailored in-
which plays an important role in boosting students’ learning terface, paired with network technology, to increase the
effectiveness. Figure 4 depicts the software’s functional stimulation of students’ sensory thinking of learning and
design. promote student motivation. The modular structure is
As shown in Figure 5, the specific process of imple- utilized to keep the system’s common databases in the
menting the software is part of the evaluation module system independent of one another, thus improving the
design. maintainability of the system [14].
Assume that the gathered data from student learning and
teaching module are m, the storage rate is v, and the learning 4. Simulation Experiments
rate of the students is v1′, v1′, . . . , vn′. Then, the resulting data
properties are as follows: Simulation experiments are conducted to analyze the ra-
m tionality of the design of the distance learning system
� v1′, v1′, . . . , vn′, v2′, v3′, . . . , vn′, vn′. (1) verified.
v
Online assessments for various students’ learning 4.1. Experimental Parameters and Environment Settings.
progress can only be done once the system has been The experimental parameters are set as shown in Table 1.
recorded. The system memo saves and mines the afore- As shown in Figure 6, the experimental environment is
mentioned attribute data. The mined data is normalized, and set up according to the above parameters.
then the initial value of the online assessment can be derived
after analysis, thus completing the data online assessment.
Personalized teaching is completely realized in the 4.2. System Interface Display. The part of the interface of the
network environment to assist students’ autonomous teaching software is shown in Figure 7.
learning, which is designed to lead students and may
properly alter the learning content with reasoning and di- 4.3. Results and Analysis. Big data was used to compare and
agnostic functions [24]. Different pupils can learn assess the educational impacts of the traditional distance
8 Mobile Information Systems
learning system and the IoT-based distance learning system. produced using the traditional system is 265. The greatest
The experimental results were based on a score of 500 score acquired by using the IoT-based distance learning
students. The results of the two types of distance learning system when the number of students is 400 is 485, and the
were compared in Table 2. lowest score obtained by using the IoT-based distance
Table 2 shows that when the number of students is 200, learning system when the number of students is 200 is 465.
the maximum score acquired using the old approach is 325, When the number of students is 600 using the distance
and when the number of students is 1,000, the lowest score learning system, the highest score is 480, and when the
Mobile Information Systems 9
Table 2: Comparison of the scores obtained by the two methods of teaching of vocal singing, there is often high demand for
distance learning. equipment in terms of sound, such as radio, encoding, and
Number of students Traditional system/score Our system/score playback, and low demand for images. The present distance
200 325 465
learning course platform cannot fulfill the fundamental
400 285 485 content of vocal music education, much alone promoting
600 280 480 material-based and individualized teaching. In this paper, we
800 270 475 propose a remote vocal singing course design based on an
1000 265 475 embedded system and the Internet of Things, which meets
the basic needs of vocal teaching in terms of hardware.
Throughout the monitoring phase, data collection is re-
Comparative Analysis quired to automatically enhance the guidance programs. It
100 also improves teachers’ understanding of students’ singing
90
Teaching efficiency (s)
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