(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012-06)
Metatla, Oussama; Bryan-Kinns, Nick; Stockman, Tony; Martin, Fiore
We present a detailed description of the design and integration of auditory and haptic displays in a collaborative diagram editing tool to allow simultaneous visual and non-visual interaction. The tool was deployed in various workplaces where visually-impaired and sighted coworkers access and edit diagrams as part of their daily jobs. We use our initial observations and analyses of the recorded interactions to outline preliminary design recommendations for supporting cross-modal collaboration in the workplace.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012-06)
Pirrò, David; Wankhammer, Alexander; Schwingenschuh, Petra; Höldrich, Robert; Sontacchi, Alois
In this paper we introduce new methods for real-time acoustical tremor diagnosis. We outline the problems of tremor diagnosis in the clinical context and discuss how sonification can complement and expand the existing tools neurologists have at their disposal. Based on three preliminary sonification experiments upon recorded tremor movement data, we show how temporal as well as spectral characteristics of a tremor can be made audible in realtime. Our first observations indicate that differences among tremor types can be made recognizable via sonification. Therefore, we suggest that the proposed methods could allow for the formulation of more confident diagnoses. At the end of the paper, we will also shortly outline the central topics of future research.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012-06)
Gillard, Jessica; Schutz, Michael
Despite strong interest in designing auditory alarms in medical devices, learning and retention of these alarms remains problematic. Based on our previous work exploring learning and retention of associations between sounds and objects, we suspect that some of the problems might in fact stem from the types of sounds used in medical auditory alarms. Several of our previous studies demonstrate improvements in memory associations when using sounds with “percussive” (i.e. decaying) envelops vs. those with “flat” (i.e. artificial sounding) envelopes – the standard structure generally used in many current alarms. Here, we attempt to extend our previous findings on the effects of temporal structure on the learning and memory. Unfortunately, we did not find evidence of any such benefit in the current study. However, several interesting patterns are emerging with respect to “confusions” – the times when one alarm was confused with another. We believe this paradigm and way of thinking about alarms (i.e. attention to temporal structure) could provide insight on ways to improve auditory alarms, thereby prevent injuries and saving lives in hospitals. We welcome the chance to gather feedback on our approaches and thoughts as to why our current attempts (which we believe are based on a solid theoretical basis) have not yet led to our hoped-for improvements.