Audification

History

The idea of audification was introduced in 1992 by Greg Kramer, initially as a sonification technique. This was the beginning of audification, but is also why most people to this day still consider audification a type of sonification.

The goal of audification is to allow the listener to audibly experience the results of scientific measurements or simulations.

A 2007 study by Sandra Pauletto and Andy Hunt at the University of York suggested that users were able to detect attributes such as noise, repetitive elements, regular oscillations, discontinuities, and signal power in audification of time-series data to a degree comparable with visual inspection of spectrograms.{{Citation | title = A comparison of audio & visual analysis of complex time-series data sets| journal = Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2005)| editor = Brazil, Eoin| year = 2005| pages = 175–181| url = http://www.icad.org/Proceedings/2005/PaulettoHunt2005.pdf|author1=Pauletto, S. |author2=Hunt, A. |name-list-style=amp }}

Applications

Applications include audification of seismic data{{Citation | title = Using audification in planetary seismology| journal = Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2001)|editor1=Hiipakka, J. |editor2=Zacharov, N. |editor3=Takala, T. | year = 2001| pages = 227–230| url = http://www.icad.org/Proceedings/2001/Dombois2001.pdf| author = Dombois, Florian }} and of human neurophysiological signals.{{Citation |name-list-style=amp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425141834/http://www.hsr.nl/bobkemp/papers/2004Easy%20listeningToSleep.pdf |archive-date=2012-04-25 An example is the esophageal stethoscope, which amplifies naturally occurring sound without conveying inherently noiseless variables such as the result of gas analysis.

Medicine

Converting ultrasound to audible sound is a form of audification that provides a form of echolocation. Other uses in the medical field include the stethoscope and the audification of an EEG.

Music

The development of electronic music can also be considered the history of audification. This is because all electronic instruments involve electric process audified using a loudspeaker.

Seismology

Audification is of interest for research into Auditory Seismology. It is used in earthquake prediction. Applications include using seismic data to differentiate bomb blasts from earthquakes.

The technique presents sound waves of earthquakes alongside a visual representation. The addition of audio allows both the eye and ears to contribute to better understanding.

NASA

NASA has used audification to represent radio and plasma wave measurements.

Sonification

Both sonification and audification are representational techniques in which data sets or its selected features are mapped into audio signals. However, audification is a kind of sonification, a term which encompasses all techniques for representing data in non-speech audio. Their relationship can be demonstrated in the way data values in some sonifications that directly define audio signals are called audification.

References

References

1. Dean, Roger. (2009). "The Oxford Handbook of Computer Music". Oxford University Press.
2. (2005). "Advanced Patient Monitoring Displays: Tools for Continuous Informing". Anesthesia and Analgesia.
3. (March 2012). "Where did that sound come from? Comparing the ability to localise using audification and audition". Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology.
4. Davies, Clare. (2008). "Audification of Ultrasound for Human Echolocation". Clare Davies.
5. "Introduction to Digital Stethoscopes and Electrical Component Selection Criteria - Tutorial - Maxim".
6. (August 2014). "2014 36th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society".
7. "Sounds of Seismic - Earth System Soundscape".
8. (1987). "Plasma wave measurements in the magnetosphere of Uranus". Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics.
9. Dombois, Florian. "Using Audification in planetary seismology".
10. (December 2017). "Direct Segmented Sonification of Characteristic Features of the Data Domain".
11. (2018). "The Aesthetics of Scientific Data Representation: More than Pretty Pictures". Routledge.