sMax: A multimodal toolkit for stock market data sonification

Abstract

In this work, we present sMax a multimodal toolkit for stock market data sonification. Unlike most research focusing their effort primarily on the sonification of single stock information, sMax provides an auditory display for the user to monitor parallel distributed data. sMax uses a set of Java and Max modules to map real time stock market information into recognizable musical patterns. One of the main design goals of the toolkit is to allow low-latency controls over real-time data sonification. Because of its object-oriented architecture, sMax can be easily extended by the user when additional functionality is required. The project outcomes range from the creation of art installations to auditory display for mobile computing devices. We present the theoretical background, and the structure of the program.