Sonification
Encyclopedia
Sonification, a form of auditory display
Auditory display
Auditory display is the use of sound to communicate information from a computer to the user..The primary forum for exploring these techniques is the International Community for Auditory Display .-Types of auditory display:...

, is the use of non-speech audio
Sound
Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.-Propagation of...

 to convey information
Information
Information in its most restricted technical sense is a message or collection of messages that consists of an ordered sequence of symbols, or it is the meaning that can be interpreted from such a message or collection of messages. Information can be recorded or transmitted. It can be recorded as...

 or perceptualize data. Auditory perception
Auditory system
The auditory system is the sensory system for the sense of hearing.- Outer ear :The folds of cartilage surrounding the ear canal are called the pinna...

 has high temporal and pressure resolution, which opens up possibilities for it as an alternative or complement to visualization
Data visualization
Data visualization is the study of the visual representation of data, meaning "information that has been abstracted in some schematic form, including attributes or variables for the units of information"....

 techniques.

For example, the Geiger counter
Geiger counter
A Geiger counter, also called a Geiger–Müller counter, is a type of particle detector that measures ionizing radiation. They detect the emission of nuclear radiation: alpha particles, beta particles or gamma rays. A Geiger counter detects radiation by ionization produced in a low-pressure gas in a...

 plays a sonification to help users know how much radiation is present. The number and frequency of audio clicks are directly dependent on the radiation level in the immediate vicinity of the device.

Though many experiments with data sonification are explored at forums such as the International Community for Auditory Display
International Community for Auditory Display
The International Community for Auditory Display , founded in 1992, provides an annual conference for all research related to auditory display, the use of sound to display information. ICAD has given a home to auditory display researchers, who come from many different disciplines, through its...

 (ICAD), sonification faces many challenges to widespread use for presenting and analyzing data. It is difficult to provide adequate context for interpreting sonifications of data. Also, there is not yet a flexible tool for sonification research and actual data exploration, meaning many sonification attempts are coded from scratch.

Some existing applications and projects


Sonification techniques

Many different components can be altered to change the user's perception of the sound, and in turn, their perception of the underlying information being portrayed. Often, an increase or decrease in some level in this information is indicated by an increase or decrease in pitch
Pitch (music)
Pitch is an auditory perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale.Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies,...

, amplitude
Amplitude
Amplitude is the magnitude of change in the oscillating variable with each oscillation within an oscillating system. For example, sound waves in air are oscillations in atmospheric pressure and their amplitudes are proportional to the change in pressure during one oscillation...

 or tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...

, but could also be indicated by varying other less commonly used components. For example, a stock market price could be portrayed by rising pitch as the stock price rose, and lowering pitch as it fell. To allow the user to determine that more than one stock was being portrayed, different timbres or brightnesses might be used for the different stocks, or they may be played to the user from different points in space, for example, through different sides of their headphones.

Many studies have been undertaken to try to find the best techniques for various types of information to be presented, and as yet, no conclusive set of techniques to be used has been formulated. As the area of sonification is still considered to be in its infancy, current studies are working towards determining the best set of sound components to vary in different situations.

Several different techniques for rendering auditory data representations can be categorized:
  • Model-Based Sonification
  • Parameter Mapping Sonification
  • Stream-Based Sonification

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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