This is one of a series of posts on how to use nkululeko and deals with setting up the "hello world" of nkululeko: performing classification on the berlin emodb emotional datbase.

Typically nkululeko experiments are defined by two files:

• a python file that is called by the interpreter
• an initialization file that is interpreted by the nkululeko framework

First we'll take a look at the python file:

# my_experiment.py
# Demonstration code to use the Nkululeko framework

import sys
sys.path.append("TO BE ADAPTED/nkululeko/src")
import configparser # to read the ini file
import experiment as exp # central nkululeko class
from util import Util # mainly for logging

def main(config_file):
    # load one configuration per experiment
    config = configparser.ConfigParser()
    config.read(config_file) # read in the ini file, the experiment is defined there
    util = Util() # init the logging and global stuff

    # create a new experiment
    expr = exp.Experiment(config)
    util.debug(f'running {expr.name}')

    # load the data sets (specified in ini file)
    expr.load_datasets()

    # split into train and test sets
    expr.fill_train_and_tests()
    util.debug(f'train shape : {expr.df_train.shape}, test shape:{expr.df_test.shape}')

    # extract features
    expr.extract_feats()
    util.debug(f'train feats shape : {expr.feats_train.df.shape}, test feats shape:{expr.feats_test.df.shape}')

# initialize a run manager and run the experiment
    expr.init_runmanager()
    expr.run()
    print('DONE')

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main('PATH TO INI FILE/exp_emodb.ini') 
    # main(sys.argv[1]) # alternatively read it from command line

and this would be a minimal nkululeko configuration file (tested with version 0.8)

[EXP]
root = ./emodb/
name = exp_emodb
[DATA]
databases = ['emodb']
emodb = TO BE ADAPTED/emodb
emodb.split_strategy = speaker_split
emodb.testsplit = 40
target = emotion
labels = ['anger', 'boredom', 'disgust', 'fear', 'happiness', 'neutral', 'sadness']
[FEATS]
type = os
[MODEL]
type = svm

I hope the names of the entries are self-explanatory, here's the link to the config file description