METHODS & DESIGNS The SSR system: An open format event recording system with computerized transcription
Gordon R. Stephenson, Daniel P. B. Smith, Thomas W. Roberts · 1975
The SSR system is an event recording system that encodes the incidence, duration, coincidence, and sequence of entries in real time onto magnetic tape for subsequent high-speed transcription by computer. The keyboard is light weight and battery powered for field as well as for laboratory applications. A conservative encoding scheme employs phase encoding and multiplexing circuitry to sample the set of 48 alphanumeric and other characters 20 times per second. The sampling rate provides a time base that is independent of tape speed. The encoding signal is recorded on an audio tape recorder at 1-7/8 ips (inches per second). A supplementary voice record can be made on a parallel track. At transcription, a small computer decodes the data tape at 15 ips; 1 h of data is transcribed into a string of characters in 71/ 2 min and stored in binary form. A second program organizes the character string into a timed manuscript of lines. The character set and all character functions, e.g., the subset of characters that start lines, are entirely software defined. A completely open format and the flexibility of user-defined software grammars facilitate the entry of subjects, actions (both momentary and continuous), objects, and other contextual information in whatever form the user requires. The SSR system is described both as a system of ideas about the problems of encoding observations for computerized transcription and as it is currently embodied in a specific set of software and field-tested hardware. The rationale for each major aspect of the system is presented in detail from a user's point of view. Within the limitations of a catalogue of categorical behavior patterns. observers of behavior may wish to record the incidence. duration. coincidence, and sequence of the patterns observed in real time. Voice notes on magnetic tape or ink pen tracings on moving paper have been used to record behavior in these terms. but both of these methods entail tedious