Sonification

Video of air pollution data from Beijing being conveyed as a piece of music

Sonification is the use of non-speech audio to convey information or perceptualize data.[1] Auditory perception has advantages in temporal, spatial, amplitude, and frequency resolution that open possibilities as an alternative or complement to visualization techniques.

For example, the rate of clicking of a Geiger counter conveys the level of radiation in the immediate vicinity of the device.

Though many experiments with data sonification have been explored in forums such as the International Community for Auditory Display (ICAD), sonification faces many challenges to widespread use for presenting and analyzing data. For example, studies show it is difficult, but essential, to provide adequate context for interpreting sonifications of data.[1][2] Many sonification attempts are coded from scratch due to the lack of flexible tooling for sonification research and data exploration.[3]

  1. ^ a b 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 978-0-201-62603-2.
  2. ^ Smith, Daniel R.; Walker, Bruce N. (2005). "Effects of Auditory Context Cues and Training on Performance of a Point Estimation Sonification Task". Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology. 19 (8): 1065–1087. doi:10.1002/acp.1146.
  3. ^ Flowers, J. H. (2005), "Thirteen years of reflection on auditory graphing: Promises, pitfalls, and potential new directions" (PDF), in Brazil, Eoin (ed.), Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Auditory Display, pp. 406–409