Re-Sonification of Geographic Sound Activity using Acoustic, Semantic and Social Information

Abstract

Sonic representations of spaces have emerged as a means to capture and present the activity that conventional representations, such as maps, do not encapsulate. Therefore, to convey the activity information of regions, both large and small, we use sounds and information provided by regional communities in the automated design of soundscapes to re-sonify geographic sound activity. To quantify this community knowledge, we have developed an ontological framework to determine the importance of sound and concepts to one another using acoustic, semantic, and social information. This framework is then used in the automated design of a generative soundscape model purposed to identify and re-sonify sounds that impart relevant information about a geographic region. Furthermore, we are developing a social networking website to facilitate the collection and re-sonification of sounds and data.