(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2000-04)
Tran, Quan T; Mynatt, Elizabeth D.
In this demo, we present an interface prototype of Music Monitor, an application targeted for home use that dynamically conducts music in real-time to reflect parallel activities in disparate locations (e.g., preparing food in the kitchen while entertaining guests in the living room) to help the user balance attention appropriately between them. Music Monitor interprets salient information from the monitored activities to map into simple music profiles (e.g., instrument selection, tempo). The prototype design focuses on providing continuous, ambient music as a peripheral auditory data display for the primary user without sacrificing aesthetic musical value for other participants and listeners.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 1994-11)
Mynatt, Elizabeth D.
Current research in auditory interfaces has produced a number of interesting interfaces without resulting in the compilation of design guidelines for creating descendent interfaces. This lack of a common design methodology may be partially responsible for the scarcity of commercial interfaces that make use of sound. Factors that affect the usability of auditory interfaces are identified, and are used as the basis for a simple design methodology for incorporating auditory icons in human-computer interfaces. Two steps in this methodology are evaluating the identifiability of auditory cues and evaluating the possible conceptual mappings between the cues and concepts in interfaces. Two experiments that explore these issues are summarized.