Multimedia Systems

, Volume 7, Issue 1, pp 23–31 | Cite as

Using sonification

  • Stephen Barrass
  • Gregory Kramer

Abstract.

The idea behind sonification is that synthetic non-verbal sounds can represent numerical data and provide support for information processing activities of many different kinds. This article describes some of the ways that sonification has been used in assistive technologies, remote collaboration, engineering analyses, scientific visualisations, emergency services and aircraft cockpits. Approaches for designing sonifications are surveyed, and issues raised by the existing approaches and applications are outlined. Relations are drawn to other areas of knowledge where similar issues have also arisen, such as human-computer interaction, scientific visualisation, and computer music. At the end is a list of resources that will help you delve further into the topic.

Key words:Sonification – Visualisation – Multi-modal – Multimedia – Perceptual display – Human-computer interaction – Information design – Auditory display 

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1999

Authors and Affiliations

  • Stephen Barrass
    • 1
  • Gregory Kramer
    • 2
  1. 1. GMD IMK – German National Research Centre for Information Technology, Schloss Birlinghoven, D-53754 St. Augustin, Germany; e-mail: stephen.barrass@gmd.de DE
  2. 2. Clarity/Santa Fe Institute, 310 NW Brynwood Lane, Portland, OR 97229, USA; e-mail: kramer@listen.com US

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