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Sonification Lab

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

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 572

Evaluating the utility of auditory perspective-taking in robot speech presentations

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-05) Brock, Derek ; McClimens, Brian ; Wasylyshyn, Christina ; Trafton, J. Gregory ; McCurry, Malcolm

In speech interactions, people routinely reason about each other’s auditory perspective and adjust their manner of speaking accordingly by raising their voice to overcome noise or distance, and sometimes by pausing and resuming when conditions are more favorable for their listener. In this paper we report the findings of a listening study motivated by both this observation and a prototype auditory interface for a mobile robot that monitors the aural parameters of its environment to infer its user’s listening requirements. The results provide significant empirical evidence of the utility of simulated auditory perspective taking and the inferred use of loudness and/or pauses to overcome the potential of ambient noise to mask synthetic speech.
Intelligibility of low bit rate mpeg-coded japanese speech in virtual 3d audio space

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-05) Kobayashi, Yousuke ; Kondo, Kazuhiro ; Nakagawa, Kiyoshi

In this paper, we investigated the influence of stereo coding on Japanese speech localized in 3-D virtual space. We encoded localized speech using Joint Stereo and Parametric Stereo modes within the HE-AAC (High-Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding) encoder at identical data rates. First, the sound quality of the localized speech signal was checked using MUSHRA subjective tests. The result showed that the speech quality for Joint Stereo is higher than Parametric Stereo when localized at 45 (where 0 refers to localization directly in front of the listener) by 20 to 30 MUSHRA score points. The scores for Joint Stereo were relatively proportional to bit rate. However, Parametric Stereo scores were not proportional to bit rate, and remained fairly constant with bit rate. Next, the Japanese word intelligibility tests were conducted using the Japanese Diagnostic Rhyme Tests (JDRT). Test speech was localized in front, while competing noise were localized at various angles. The result showed that speech could not be separated from the noise for Joint Stereo when the noise was in located in the frontal region, from 45 to 45, and intelligibility degrades significantly. However at other azimuth, the intelligibility improves dramatically. On the other hand, intelligibility with Parametric Stereo remained constant, at about 70 to 80%.
The use of sonic articulation in identifying correlation in capital market trading data

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-05) Worrall, David

Despite intensive study, a comprehensive understanding of the structure of capital market trading data remains elusive. The one known application of audification to market price data reported in the 1990 that it was difficult to interpret the results probably because the market does not resonate according to acoustic laws. This paper reports on a technique transforming the data so it does resonate, so audification can be used as a means of identifying autocorrelation in capital market trading data. The results obtained indicate that the technique may have a wider application to other similarly structured time-series data.
Revisiting the phenomenon of sound as "empty container": the acoustic imagination in Kurt Schwitters's ``ursonata''

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-05) Bulut, Zeynep

Dadaist artist and composer Kurt Schwitters’ s Ursonata (1922-1932) is a sound poem for solo voice based on a made-up verbal language that uses phonetics in German. Percussionist Steven Schick and composer/sound designer Shahrokh Y adegari have arranged a multimedia interpretation of Ursonata, (The New) UrSonata (2006) that amplifies the sounds of the voice as spatiotemporal events. Addressing the spatiotemporal voice in the (The New) UrSonata, this paper raises two goals: (1) to unfold the perception and reception of sound as acoustic imagination, and (2) to discuss acoustic imagination as “empty container” in Henri Lefebvre’s terms, that generates spatiality and bodily thought. To examine the notion of acoustic imagination, I will refer to Henri Lefebvre’s metaphor of “empty container”, which indicates a pure interiority to be filled in. Lefebvre qualifies the ontological status of space as empty container. I intend to use the same metaphor to formulate acoustic imagination. I will elaborate the connection between “empty container” and acoustic imagination by exemplifying the sounds of a coffee machine. Imagine the rhythmic drops of a coffee machine. Listening to the drops, we resonate with the sounds, we map a space through the physical nexus of the sounds, and we orient ourselves within the actual space by the help of the sounds. In other words, being physically and psychically extended by the sound, we draw a space. Acoustic imagination is pure interiority filled with such extension. This very extension produces spatial thought. In his Phenomenology of Perception, Maurice Merleau-Ponty draws our attention to spatiality as ‘bodily thought”. Furthering Merleau-Ponty’ s idea, I will suggest that acoustic imagination constitutes bodily thought. I will then return to Schwitter’s Ursonata and (The New) UrSonata, and situate the spatiotemporal sounds of the voice at the heart of our listening experience. While listening to crystallized fragments of sound, how do we conceive Schick’s voice? How do we hear, imagine, and build symmetries or asymmetries between his voice and our own voices?
Navigation performance effects of render method and latency in mobile audio augmented reality

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-05) Mariette, Nicholas

This paper describes a pilot study and main experiment that as- sess user performance at navigating to spatialised sound sources using a mobile audio augmented reality system. Experiments use a novel outdoor paradigm with an application-relevant navigation task to compare perception of two binaural rendering methods un- der several head-turn latencies. Binaural rendering methods ex- amined were virtual, 6-speaker, first-order Ambisonic and virtual 12-speaker VBAP techniques. This study extends existing indoors research on the effects of head-turn latency for seated listeners. The pilot study examined the effect of capture radius (of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 metres) on mean distance efficiency for a single user’s navigation path to sound sources. A significant performance degradation was found to occur for radii of 2 m. The main exper- iment examined the effect of render method and total system la- tency to head-turns (176 ms minimum plus 0, 100, 200, 400 and 800 ms) on mean distance efficiency and subjective stability rating (on a scale of 1-5), for 8 participants. Render method significantly affected distance efficiency and 800 ms of added head-turn latency significantly affected subjective stability. Also, the study revealed a significant interaction effect of render method and head-turn la- tency: Ambisonic rendering didn’t significantly affect subjective stability due to added head-turn latency, while VBAP rendering did. Thus, it appears rendering method can mitigate or potentiate stability effects of head-turn latency. The study also exemplifies that the novel experimental paradigm is capable of revealing statis- tically significant performance differences between mobile audio AR implementations.
Entropy sonification

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-05) Ramakrishnan, Chandrasekhar ; Greenwood, Steven

We present entropy sonification, a technique to bring interesting data to the foreground of a sonification and push uninteresting data into the background. To achieve this, the data is modeled as an in- formation source, and the underlying sonification is converted into sound grains. Information-theoretic attributes of the data are used to determine the amplitude envelope and duration of the grains. The information source model adds an additional avenue for con- trol. By altering the information source model, one can focus on different aspects of the data via entropy zooming.
A sound design for the purposes of movement optimisation in elite sport (using the example of rowing)

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-05) Schaffert, Nina ; Mattes, Klaus ; Effenberg, A.O

Monitoring sportive movements is essential for training processes to detect variations as well as progression, stagnations or even regressions. Visualization plays the dominant role in the technique analysis, even though the eyes’ ability to perceive information of time-related events are limited and less efficient in comparison to the ears. Sound represents the information more differentiated and can support motion sequences. Acoustic displays offer a promising alternative to visual displays. Therefore an appropriate sound is needed that represents the specific movement patterns of a cyclic motion. In this paper we present our current considerations towards basic requirements for a sound design that fulfils the specific purposes of movement optimisation and its acceptance in elite sport.
Towards the timbre modeling of interior car sound

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-05) Sciabica, J.F ; Bezat, M.C ; Roussarie, V. ; Kronland-Martinet, R ; Ystad, S

Quality investigations and design of interior car sounds constitute an important challenge for the car industry. Such sounds are complex and time-varying, inducing considerable timbre variations depending on the driving conditions. An interior car sound is indeed a mixture between several sound sources, with two main contributions, i.e. the engine noise, the aerodynamic and tire-road noise. That’s why masking phenomena between these two components should be considered when studying perceptive attributes of interior car sounds. Additive synthesis is used to simulate the harmonic engine noise. Nevertheless, this synthesis is controlled by a large number of parameters and no relation between these parameters and their perceptive relevance has been clearly identified. By combining sensory analysis and signal analysis associated with an auditory model, we can find a relation between a reduced number of signal parameters and perceptive attributes. This study develops a method to simplify the timbre description of interior card sounds and presents the first results of auditory model application on such sounds.
Using a systematic design process to investigate narrative sound design strategies for interactive commodities

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-05) Hug, Daniel

Computing technologies turn everyday artifacts into narrative, pro- cedural objects. This observation suggests that the narrative sound design strategies used in films and video games could also be ap- plied for the design of interactive commodities. However, it is unknown whether these strategies from immersive media can be applied in physical artifacts of everyday use. In this paper we de- scribe methodological considerations and outline a structure of a revisable, design oriented, participatory research process, which allows to explore narrative sound designs and their possible appli- cation in interactive commodities in a systematic yet explorative way. The process, which focused on interpretational aspects, has been applied in two workshops and their results are reported and discussed.
Statistical rules in constraint-based programming

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-05) Laurson, Mikael ; Kuuskankare, Mika ; Kuitunen, Kimmo ; Sandred, Orjan

In this paper we introduce a system that first generates statistical analysis data from a musical score. The results are then translated automatically to constraint rules that in turn can be used in com- bination with ordinary rules to generate scores that have similar statistical distributions than the original. Statistical analysis rules are formalized using our special rule syntax where our focus will be in the pattern-matching part of the rules. The pattern-matching part has two important tasks in our paper: first, it is used to extract various musical entities from the score, such as melodic, harmonic and voice-leading formations; second, it is used also to generate statistical rules which will be used in the re-synthesis part of our system. We first introduce the rule syntax. After this we discuss a practical case study where we analyze a melodic line. Finally we generate out of this material statistical rules which are used to produce new scores.