Sonification Sandbox Reconstruction: Software Standard for Auditory Graphs

Abstract

We report on an overhaul to the Sonification Sandbox. The Sonification Sandbox provides a cross-platform, flexible tool for converting tabular information into a descriptive auditory graph. It is implemented in Java, using the Java Sound API to generate MIDI output. An improved modular code structure provides a strong user interface and model framework for auditory graph representation and manipulation. A researcher can integrate part or the entire program into a different experimental implementation. The upgraded Sonification Sandbox provides a rich description of the auditory graph representation that can be saved or exported into various file formats. This description includes data representations of pitch, timbre, polarity, pan, and volume, along with graph contexts analogous to visual graph axes. Applications for the Sonification Sandbox include experimentation with various sonification techniques, data analytics beyond visualization, science education, auditory display for the blind, and musical interpretation of data.