Organizational Unit:

Sonification Lab

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https://hdl.handle.net/1853/70670

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 10

Exploring concurrent auditory icon recognition

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-05) Brazil, Eoin ; Fernstrom, Mikael ; Bowers, John

This poster explores and deepens existing studies into the identi- fication of concurrently presented auditory icons. The motivation for this work was to gain a better understanding of auditory icons where several are played together simultaneously. A set of de- scriptors for everyday sounds were collected from participants and classified into action and object categories. The exploration con- sidered the hypothesis that when auditory icons did not have the same object or action descriptors that the identifications of the au- ditory icons would improve. This was studied in conditions where three, six, and nine sounds were simultaneously presented. These conditions had two distinct sub-categories, the first category used a prior classification of sounds to ensure no sound pair in the con- dition had the same action or object properties. The second sub- category used random selection of the sounds meaning that similar sound could exist within the particular condition. A onset-to-onset gap of 300 ms between sounds being presented was used. The re- sults supports earlier findings and showed that distinguishing be- tween object and action properties of auditory icons did improve their identification accuracy. It was found that prior classification allows listeners to achieve close to a 10% identification improve- ment in accuracy.
Subjective experience methods for early conceptual design of auditory display

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-05) Brazil, Eoin ; Fernstrom, Mikael

We review a cross-section of subjective experience methods fo- cused on the early conceptual design of auditory displays. The motivation of this review is to support expert and novice design- ers in creating auditory displays in human-computer interaction by introducing them to these methods. A range of available guid- ance and current practice is firstly analysed. Subsequently, the key methods and their concepts are discussed with examples from ex- isting studies. A complementary framework is presented to high- light how these methods can be used together by auditory display designer at the early conceptual design stage. The results from these studies help to demonstrate the need for a greater awareness and use of this type of method in early conceptual design to un- cover pragmatic mental models and associated salient cognitive attributes. The attributes can be related to subjective judgements such as quality, preference, or context among many. This type of approach differs from many quantitative approaches which are strictly focused on the usage aspects of auditory displays. The manner of quantitative approaches is to use hypothesis and valida- tion criteria, however these cannot deal in a structured way with ephemeral judgements such as emotion, mood, or with subject de- pendant information such as tacit knowledge. The increasing use of interactive auditory displays is one area where this type of early conceptual design method can help in ensuring the designed in- teraction and the concrete mapping it uses reflects the considered behaviour of potential users including aspects of the inner needs, desires, and tacit knowledge. This approach will help in consider- ing the emotional, intellectual, and sensual aspects of interactions when designing auditory displays. We close by reflecting on the results and discussing future lines of research using these methods.
The Shannon Portal: Designing an Auditory Display for Casual Users in a Public Environment

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-05) Fernstrom, Mikael ; Brazil, Eoin

We developed an installation for a public environment and casual users where auditory display was a significant element to facilitate user interaction. We used an iterative design process, starting from simple onomatopoeic representations, to complex sound object models in Pure Data. The system was evaluated at each stage, from the lab to the final public setting. The problems addressed covered the representations of left-right, up-down, and the amount of movement by the user or groups of users. In addition to this, it was important that the auditory display would attract attention when users were within control range of the system, i.e. an affordance that invited and allowed users to discover functionality.
Investigating Ambient Auditory Information Systems

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-06) Brazil, Eoin ; Fernstrom, Mikael

This paper discusses an exploration using a concurrent auditory displays for awareness and lightweight interactions. The design of this type of system and comparisons to existing awareness tools are discussed. The auditory display system in this exploration was designed to explore, using concurrent auditory icons, the issue of group awareness. The sounds used in this auditory display where selected based on their identification derived from individual's personal constructs using the Repertory Grid Technique. The system was designed to create a `soundscape' of concurrent ecological sounds mapped to the individual's availability and to the group activities, respectively. In this paper we present an auditory display using auditory icons to create an interactive soundscape that support opportunistic interactions and awareness. Presence and activity are conveyed by changes in the soundscape. Our goal in this work is to explore the potential of this type of system for supporting awareness and lightweight interactions.
Where's that sound? Exploring arbitrary user classifications of sounds for audio collection management

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2003-07) Brazil, Eoin ; Fernstrom, Mikael

Collections of sound and music of increasing size and diversity are used both by general personal computer users and multimedia designers. Browsing audio collections poses several challenges to the design of effective user interfaces. In this paper, we report results from a new version of the Sonic Browser for managing general sound resources on personal computers. In particular, we have evaluated browsing of everyday sounds. The investigation was directed at comparing browsing of audio resources with arbitrary classifications. The problem of sound resource browsing for multimedia designers is the specific area of focus for our experiment. Finally, we conclude with current trends of our approach for further improvement of the system.
Instrument timbre models with noisy partial inclusion

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2003-07) O'Sullivan, Conor ; Fernstrom, Mikael

This paper presents the results of work performed in the area of analysis, manipulation and re-synthesis of musical instrument sounds. The goal is an efficient method of musical instrument sound modelling. Building on work previously carried out on analysis/resynthesis methods, in addition to phase vocoding methods, the work here presented proffers an alternative method of harmonic partial analysis and filtration. A new technique for sound model generation is presented and results from preliminary testing are discussed.
A new experimental technique for gathering similarity ratings for sounds

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2003-07) Fernstrom, Mikael ; Brazil, Eoin ; Ottaviani, Laura

Multidimensional scaling techniques (MDS) are a vibrant area of research with much development and advancement in last few decades. In this paper we focus on an interactive 2-dimensional interface for creating a similarity space for audio. Classical MDS techniques can place great demands upon participants overwhelming their sensory and cognitive abilities to make choices across such datasets using only pairwise comparison. We outline the results of an investigation to obtain multidimensional similarity ratings for a mixed sound collection containing both recorded sounds and synthesised sounds, and we describe briefly a computer application for collecting such data that reduces task demands by use of a 2-dimensional visual display with multistream audio for organising sound similarity and returns the results in the context of the whole stimuli set.
Audio games: Fun for all? All for fun!

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2003-07) Targett, Sue ; Fernstrom, Mikael

In this paper we investigate if it is possible to create entertaining computer games that use only non-speech aural feedback and if such games could be used for skills acquisition or in therapeutic applications. To answer these questions we developed two computer games, Os & Xs (Tic Tac Toe) and Mastermind, representing all necessary information through auditory display. User testing confirmed that the games were playable and early indications are that the games can be entertaining, particularly for the blind community. Testing also suggested that playing audio games could assist in increasing both memory and ability to concentrate, thus showing potential for both skills acquisition and therapeutic applications.
Sonic browsing: An auditory tool for multimedia asset management

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2001-07) Fernstrom, Mikael ; Brazil, Eoin

In previous work, the Sonic Browser was used for browsing large data sets of music [1]. In this paper, we report results from an updated version of the Sonic Browser for managing general sound resources on personal computers. In particular, we have evaluated browsing of everyday sounds. The investigation was directed at comparing browsing single versus multiple stream audio. The problem of sound resource browsing for multimedia designers is the specific area of focus for our experiment. Finally, we conclude with current trends of our research for further improvement of the system.
Bliain le baisteach - sonifying a year with rain

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2001-07) Fernstrom, Mikael ; Griffith, Niall ; Taylor, Sean

In this paper the development of software for the creation of Bliain Le Baisteach is described. Over 77,000 datapoints were received from the Irish meteorological service. A neural network was designed and trained with 1,000 traditional Irish melodies. The data was then partitioned according to the four geographical provinces of Ireland and made to stimulate the network, generating the different parts of a score for the Irish Chamber Orchestra.