This paper presents a general model for sonification of large spatial data sets (e.g. seismic data, medical data) based on ideas from ecological acoustics. The model incorporates not only what we hear (the sounds), but also how we listen (the interaction). Metaphorically speaking the interpreter is walking along paths in areas of the data set, listening to locally and globally defined sound objects. The time aspects of sonification are given special attention, introducing the notion of temporalization. Some features of a preliminary Windows NT implementation are summarized. Keywords Sonification, ecological acoustics, everyday listening, interaction, model

Data sonification is the representation of data using sound. Last year we presented a flexible, interactive and portable data sonification toolkit called LISTEN, that allows mapping of data to several sound parameters such as pitch, volume, timbre and duration [20]. One of the potential drawbacks of LISTEN is that since the sounds generated are non-musical, they can be fatiguing when exploring large data sets over extended periods of time. A primary goal in the design of MUSE -- a MUsical Sonification Environment -- is to map scientific data to musical sounds. The challenge is to ensure that the data meanings are preserved and brought out by these mappings. MUSE provides flexible data mappings to musical sounds using parameters such as pitch (melody), rhythm, tempo, volume, timbre and harmony. MUSE is written in C++ for the SGI platform and works with the freely available sound specification software CSound developed at MIT. We have applied MUSE to map uncertainty in some scientific da...

This paper presents the results from a qualitative case study of an auditory version of the game Towers of Hanoi. The goal of this study was to explore qualitative aspects of auditory direct manipulation and the subjective experience from playing the game. The results show that it is important to provide a way of focusing in the auditory space. Articulatory directness was also an important issue and feedback should support the movement of the objects in the auditory space. 1.

This paper presents an audio-only version of drag and drop. By continuously presenting the information, using auditory zooming at two different levels and absolute positioning of the cursor, a blind user is able to get an overview, locate and interact with a specific object. Two user studies on two different versions have been made in order to get input to the design process and to evaluate the ideas. The results points at the importance of being able to customize the interface and to provide an overview of all interface objects. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.5.2 [Information Interfaces and Presentation]: User

We describe, evaluate and analyze an integrated musical visualization system for assessing protein structural alignments. Superpositions of protein structures in three-dimensional space are visualized using the molecular graphics program Rasmol. Four environment parameters are examined: secondary structure, polarity, exposure, and goodness-of-fit. It is difficult to assess these parameters using visualization alone. Therefore, we employed melodic components with unique characteristics to convey these four parameters to the user. We used basic music theory (arranging, voice leading, development of melodic phrases, etc.) as the basis for sonification parameters. We attempted to maximize the individuality of the sonification elements by employing sound effects such as panning a voice to the left or right speaker and parameter adjustment such as changing its volume. To validate the utility of our system, we conducted an experiment to evaluate the performance of users in estimating the value of these four variables under three distinct modes: visual, musical, and visual+musical presentation. The preliminary raw results of our experiments were reported in an earlier work [4]. We also conducted experiments when all the four variables were played together in a symphony-like fashion to assess the impact of presenting several variables simultaneously. Raw results seemed to indicate that the visual+musical delivery is more effective than the visual delivery alone in most cases. In this work, we present the results of statistical tests and their implications. We found that the accuracy performance was statistically significantly better in the Audio Only mode in comparison to the Visual only mode both in the case of single variable presentation and the multiple variable presentati...