Auditory display

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Auditory display is the use of sound to communicate information from a computer to the user. [1] The primary forum for exploring these techniques is the International Community for Auditory Display (ICAD), which was founded by Gregory Kramer in 1992 as a forum for research in the field.

Contents

Types of auditory display

Benefits and limitations

Auditory display enables eyes-free usage for blind users (via a screen reader) as well as sighted users who are using their eyes for other tasks. A rapid detection of acoustic signals and the omnidirectional feature of the sense of hearing can contribute to the effectiveness of an auditory display even when vision is available. On the other hand, sound output may interfere with other acoustic signals, such as speech communication. This complicates the use of auditory displays for certain applications. Furthermore, acoustic output may be annoying or distracting. [2]

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Temporal envelope (ENV) and temporal fine structure (TFS) are changes in the amplitude and frequency of sound perceived by humans over time. These temporal changes are responsible for several aspects of auditory perception, including loudness, pitch and timbre perception and spatial hearing.

Data sonification is the presentation of data as sound using sonification. It is the auditory equivalent of the more established practice of data visualization.

Gregory Paul Kramer, is an American composer, researcher, inventor, meditation teacher and author. In 1975 he co-founded Electronic Musicmobile, a pioneer synthesizer ensemble later renamed Electronic Art Ensemble, in which Kramer was a musician and composer. His pioneering work extended to developing synthesizer and related equipment. Kramer also co-founded the not-for-profit arts organization Harvestworks in New York City. He is recognized as the founding figure of the intensely cross-disciplinary field of data sonification. Since 1980, Kramer teaches Buddhist meditation. He is credited as developer of Insight Dialogue, an interpersonal meditation practice. Kramer is the author of several books in diverse fields, as well as (co-)author of scientific papers in the field of data sonification.

References

  1. McGookin, David K.; Brewster, Stephen A. (October 2004), "Understanding concurrent earcons: Applying auditory scene analysis principles to concurrent earcon recognition" (PDF), ACM Trans. Appl. Percept., 1 (2): 131, doi:10.1145/1024083.1024087, ISSN   1544-3558, S2CID   14744728
  2. Kramer, Gregory, ed. (1994). Auditory Display: Sonification, Audification, and Auditory Interfaces . Santa Fe Institute Studies in the Sciences of Complexity. Vol. Proceedings Volume XVIII. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. ISBN   0-201-62603-9.