QUALIA Platform

Browser-based perceptual screener and assessor qualification platform for the GN Perceptual Evaluation Team.

GN Audio / Jabra · Internal Research Tool

QUALIA Platform

QUALIA is a browser-based platform for screening and qualifying human assessors before they join perceptual listening or viewing panels at GN Audio. It runs entirely in the browser with no installation and no backend server. All test logic, stimulus generation, and response collection execute client-side via the Web Audio API and standard browser rendering.

Zero install In-browser Web Audio API Adaptive staircase 2AFC / Triangle Quarto R SVG stimuli

Three-layer ecosystem

Power Platform Admin & enrollment
→
QUALIA Screen & qualify
→
DOTTY Run perceptual studies

Tools

dB HL

AudiMap

Pure-tone audiometry

Estimates bilateral hearing thresholds using the Hughson-Westlake adaptive staircase. Tone generation is handled client-side via the Web Audio API. Results export as structured audiogram data for downstream panel reporting.

Hughson-Westlake Web Audio API 250Hz–8kHz
E ÆŽ E E ÆŽ E ÆŽ E ÆŽ E logMAR

AcuiScreen

Visual acuity screening

A launcher wrapper around FrACT10, the established psychophysical acuity test battery. Supports logMAR estimation, tumbling-E optotypes, and Landolt-C rings. Handles configuration, session flow, and result capture inside the QUALIA interface.

FrACT10 logMAR tumbling-E Landolt-C

ColorScreen

Color vision screening

A color vision screener built around Ishihara-style plates generated as SVGs natively in the browser. Avoiding raster image assets ensures reproducible stimulus presentation across display types and resolutions.

SVG plates Ishihara-style Client-side
A B

AuQAS

Audio quality adaptive screening

Estimates a candidate's sensitivity to audio degradation using 2AFC and Triangle test paradigms. The staircase procedure is configurable in step size, reversal count, and starting level. Results yield a per-assessor quality sensitivity threshold prior to panel admission.

2AFC Triangle test Adaptive staircase
CRF

ViQAS

Video compression threshold screening

A 2AFC descending staircase over H.264 Constant Rate Factor levels. Candidates compare compressed and reference video clips to identify the degraded stimulus. The procedure converges on a per-assessor compression visibility threshold.

2AFC H.264 CRF Descending staircase
Quarto/R

Analysis

Quarto R panel reporting

A Quarto R report template for panel-level qualification reporting. Generates audiogram overlays, threshold distribution plots, and pass/fail summaries across assessors. Reports render to HTML and PNG for archival and review by the evaluation team.

Quarto ggplot2 Audiogram overlay PNG export

Design rationale

QUALIA was designed around three constraints: zero deployment overhead, reproducible stimulus presentation, and integration with existing internal workflows. Running entirely in-browser reduces the coordination cost of qualifying assessors in remote or distributed settings without requiring server provisioning or software installation on assessor machines.

Adaptive staircase procedures are used throughout to estimate perceptual thresholds efficiently without requiring fixed stimulus sets. SVG-based visual stimuli (ColorScreen) and Web Audio API tone generation (AudiMap) ensure consistent rendering independent of display hardware and audio driver configurations.

The platform is not intended for external use or commercial deployment. It serves as qualification infrastructure for the GN Audio Perceptual Evaluation Team's research activities in the context of product listening and viewing panels.