I Hear NY4D: Hybrid Acoustic and Augmented Auditory Display for Urban Soundscapes

Abstract

This project, I Hear NY4D, presents a modular auditory display platform for layering recorded sound and sonified data into an immersive environment. Our specific use of the platform layers Ambisonic recordings of New York City and a palette of virtual sound events that correspond to various static and realtime data feeds based on the listener’s location. This creates a virtual listening environment modeled on an augmented reality stream of sonified data in an existing acoustic soundscape, allowing for closer study of the interaction between real and virtual sound events and testing the limits of auditory comprehension.