There have been many attempts to support awareness and lightweight interactions using video and audio, but few have been built on widely available infrastructure. Text-based systems have become more popular, but few support awareness, opportunistic conversations, and mobility, three important elements of helping distributed groups coordinate. We built on the popularity of text-based Instant Messengers (IM) by building a mobile IM called Hubbub that tries to provide all three, notably through the use of musical sounds. In a 5.5-month use study, we found that Hubbub helped people feel connected to others in different locations and supported opportunistic interactions. Sound was a useful cue for helping people feel connected, although some found it annoying. It was more important to support graceful transitions between multiple fixed locations than to support wireless access, although both were useful.

Two investigations into the identification of concurrently presented, structured sounds, called earcons were carried out. One of the experiments investigated how varying the number of concurrently presented earcons affected their identification. It was found that varying the number had a significant effect on the proportion of earcons identified. Reducing the number of concurrently presented earcons lead to a general increase in the proportion of presented earcons successfully identified. The second experiment investigated how modifying the earcons and their presentation, using techniques influenced by auditory scene analysis, affected earcon identification. It was found that both modifying the earcons such that each was presented with a unique timbre, and altering their presentation such that there was a 300 ms onset-to-onset time delay between each earcon were found to significantly increase identification. Guidelines were drawn from this work to assist future interface designers when incorporating concurrently presented earcons.

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

Voice loops, an auditory groupware technology, are essential coordination support tools for experienced practitioners in domains such as air traffic management, aircraft carrier operations and space shuttle mission control. They support synchronous communication on multiple channels among groups of people who are spatially distributed. In this paper, we suggest reasons for why the voice loop system is a successful medium for supporting coordination in space shuttle mission control based on over 130 hours of direct observation. Voice loops allow practitioners to listen in on relevant communications without disrupting their own activities or the activities of others. In addition, the voice loop system is structured around the mission control organization, and therefore directly supports the demands of the domain. By understanding how voice loops meet the particular demands of the mission control environment, insight can be gained for the design of groupware tools to support cooperative activity in other event-driven domains.

This paper discusses the design of audio games, a quite new computer game category that originates from games for players with visual impairments as well as from mainstream music games. In the TiM project (Tactile Interactive Multimedia), SITREC develops three sound-based games that point out new directions for game audio design. The TiM games demonstrate different ways in which games can be designed around an auditory experience. Several unique features of audio games are presented emphasising unexplored potentials for interactivity and future development areas are suggested. SITREC proposes an approach to the design of auditory interfaces that takes three listening modes into consideration: casual listening, semantic listening and reduced listening. A semiotic model is presented that illustrates this view on sound object design and ways in which sounds can be combined. The discourse focuses on issues of continuous display, musicality and clarity, and introduces the notion of ”spatialised game soundtracks, ” as opposed to separated background music and game effect sounds. The main challenge when developing auditory interfaces is to balance functionality and aesthetics. Other important issues are the inclusion of meta-level information in order to achieve a high level of complexity and to provide elements of open-endedness. This refers to planning the overall gameplay, as well as to designing individual sound objects and combining them into complex, interactive soundscapes.

This paper addresses the issue of music as a communication medium in auditory humancomputer interfaces. So far, psychoacoustics has had a great influence on the development of auditory interfaces, directly and through music cognition. We suggest that a better understanding of the processes involved in the perception of actual musical excerpts should allow musical auditory interface designers to exploit the communicative potential of music. In this respect, we argue that the real advantage of music as a communication medium relies on the richness of its specifically musical meanings rather than on its formal structure. Finally, we propose a method for automating the design of musical auditory interfaces, in order to make this design possible to non-musician designers.

An empirical study explored the extent to which people can map locations in auditory space to locations on a visual display for four different transformations (or mappings) between auditory and visual surfaces. Participants were trained in each of four transformations: horizontal square, horizontal arc, vertical square, and vertical spherical surface. On each experimental trial, a sound was played through headphones connected to a spatialized sound system that uses a non-individualized head-related transfer function. The participant’s task was to determine, using one transformation at a time, which of two objects on a visual display corresponded to the location of the sound. Though the two vertical transformations provided a more direct stimulus-response compatibility with the visual display, the two horizontal transformations made better use of the human auditory system’s ability to localize sound, and resulted in better performance. Eye movements were analyzed, and it was found that the horizontal arc transformation provided the best auditory cue for moving the eyes to the correct visual target location with a single saccade. 1 Auditory displays are routinely used to keep an operator abreast of what is happening in the visual periphery. Auditory alerts often direct attention to visual displays in cars, aircraft,

Abstract not found

ii EIDESSTATTLICHE ERKLÄRUNG Ich erkläre hiermit an Eides statt, dass ich die vorliegende Arbeit selbständig und ohne fremde Hilfe verfasst, andere als die angegebenen Quellen und Hilfsmittel nicht benutzt und die aus anderen Quellen entnommenen Stellen als solche gekennzeichnet habe.

Designing sound-based interactive entertainment for visually impaired users poses several challenges. This article points out some central issues faced when developing sound-based computer games. The three games described here were developed for the Swedish Library of Talking Books and Braille (TPB), to be published on the TPB Internet site [1]. These games, Towers of Hanoi, Memory and Tag, can be played without the aid of graphics, although they do also feature animations of a style designed for partially sighted players. The games are quite small Flash applications, suitable for web publishing, and while not so complex as some other titles, they still emphasise some crucial design issues of creating sound-based computer games. Background Recent progress in computer audio technologies has enhanced the importance of sound in interactive “multimedia”. The new possibilities to use sound in interactive media are very welcome to computer users that have difficulties in using graphical displays. Today, it is possible to create sound-based interactive entertainment, such as computer games, that is accessible to visually impaired computer users. There are several computer games that focus on sound, from sound toys such as Toshio Iwai’s Sim Tunes [2], to the sonic puzzles of Myst [3] and the soundtrack-generated levels of Masay Matsuura’s Vib Ribbon [4]. While most new computer games feature high quality sound effects, and sometimes even advanced interactive soundtracks, they usually still rely on graphics to present most of the information. Mainstream computer games are generally graphics-oriented, with sounds added mainly as decorative effects. Therefore, they are most often inaccessible to visually impaired computer users. However, there are alternative ways in which computer games can be created. If approaching the design from a position where sound is the central medium and graphics, when present, are added to complement the sounds, it is possible create games that offers new, innovative challenges. Sound-based games need not be exclusively produced for the visually impaired community; they can be enjoyable and educational for anyone. Good examples of existing sound-based games are Monkey Business and Pinball [5], Shades of Doom [6] and Troopanum [7].