Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
necessarily ensured, but the spearcon plays the role of an unequivocal footprint. This
notion was initially introduced by Walker [WAL 06] in order to compensate for the
limitations of a sonification based on earcons or auditory icons (difficulty in creation
and learning, in particular for earcons). Regarding this, the works of Walker,
particularly those carried out with Palladino [PAL 07] on a cell phone menu, put
forward the learning capabilities of spearcons.
Other than these three basic approaches - and by moving further away from the
case where the sound has only a warning role only, informing in a binary manner as
to the activation state of a system (for example, the ringtone of the cell phone that is
the same whoever is calling) - sonification can also take into account the
interactivity aspects inherent to communication between the human and the
machine. In this case it is based on more complex techniques, the detail of which is
given in [HER 04], [HER 08], such as:
- The so-called “parameter mapping” approach that consists of linking the value
or nature of data to acoustic characteristics of the signal (intensity, pitch, duration,
rhythm, tone attributes, etc.). The typical implementations of this approach are, for
example, the Geiger counter or sound devices to aid parking, where information
regarding distance between the car and the obstacle is converted on a rhythmical
scale.
- The so-called “model-based” approach that does not directly consider the
conversion of data into sound, but, initially, the conversion of data into a device (or
instrument capable of producing a sound); the exploration of data being achieved
through the interaction between this device and the user-explorer. This is, for
example, the case of a device such as
Shoogle
(quoted in [HER 08]), which converts
messages received on a cell phone into as many elements (grains or balls) of a
maracas-type instrument that the user activates by shaking the device, thus linking
the tone of the phone - which has become an instrument - to the number of waiting
messages. This approach, which is relatively new, is based on computing abilities to
model physical objects (virtual reality) or on technological abilities to instrument
tangible objects (augmented reality). In the end, it is therefore not a matter of the
manner in which the data manage the sound but rather the manner in which these
same data are instrumentalized.
It is important to note that the issue of sonification is largely addressed
internationally within the ICAD (International Community on Auditory Display)
1
community and more recently in the context of the European COST-Action SID
(Sonic Interaction Design)
2
, which deals more specifically with the emerging aspects
of interactive sonification.
1 www.icad.org.
2 www.cost-sid.org.
