Real-Time Sonification of Physiological Data in an Artistic Performance Context

Abstract

This paper presents an approach for real-time sonification of physiological measurements and its extension to artistic creation. Three sensors where used to measure heart pulse, breathing, and thoracic volume expansion. A different sound process based on sound synthesis and digital audio effects was used for each sensor. We designed the system in order to produce three different streams clearly separables and to allow listeners to perceive as clearly as possible the physiological phenomena. The data were measured in the context of an artistic performance. Because the first purpose of this sonification is to participate to an artistic project we tried to produce an interesting sound results from an aesthetic point of view, but at the same time we tried to keep an auditory display highly correlated to the data flows.