Querying Freesound with a microphone

On the web, searching for sounds is usually limited to text queries. This requires adding textual descriptions to each audio file, which is indexed effectively as a text document. Recent developments in browser technologies allow developers to access the audio input or microphone of the computer, enabling Query by Example (QbE) applications. We present a demonstration system that allows users to make queries on Freesound.org by recording audio in the browser. A basic prototype is available online.