A model for interaction in exploratory sonification displays

Abstract

This paper presents a general model for sonification of large spatial data sets (e.g. seismic data, medical data) based on ideas from ecological acoustics. The model incorporates not only what we hear (the sounds), but also how we listen (the interaction). Metaphorically speaking the interpreter is walking along paths in areas of the data set, listening to locally and globally defined sound objects. The time aspects of sonification are given special attention, introducing the notion of temporalization. Some features of a preliminary Windows NT implementation are summarized.