Echoes, Whispers, and
Footsteps from the Conflux of
Sonic Interaction Design and of
Public Spaces
Eoin Brazil
1st Nov 2008

Narrowing our focus
How to select and classify suitable sounds for a particular
interaction design ?
TaDa - select sounds to communicate the dimensions and
directions with relation to their actions and to that of the
system e.g. ears-lead-eyes design pattern
Sounds linked to physical objects as dynamic entities with
manipulation / interaction
Multidimensional information carrier - size, shape,
material, distance, speed, and emotional expression

Selection of Approaches
Evaluating Perceptual Qualities of Single Auditory Stimuli
Identification Tasks, Context-Based Ratings, Attribute
Ratings
Evaluating Relations Among Auditory Stimuli
Discrimination Trials, Similarity Ratings, Sorting Tasks
MDS, CA, PCA, Pathfinder Analysis
Evaluation of application
Surveys, Verbal Protocols, Heuristics

Previous studies
Identification percents / Causal Uncertainty metric
Multidimensional scaling based on perceived perceptual
property of sounds
Repertory Grid method

Findings from previous studies
Explore if mapping human activity to actions rather than to
objects works for task/domain
Consider the possibility of concurrent auditory presentation
Metaphor from the listener’s own textual responses
Verify your mappings - Proximity ratings, paired
comparisons, or similarity judgements
Visual depiction/s of the human perceptual space
underlying the representation of a set of stimuli can help

Findings from previous studies -
Sound Object Models

Findings from previous studies -
Concurrent Auditory Icons

Findings from previous studies -
Concurrent Auditory Icons
Identify and
remove the
confused sounds

Findings - Repertory Grid
Continuous /
Repetitive
Impact / Scraping /
Deformation

Findings - Repertory Grid
Source / Object /
Type of Interaction

Sound
Design
Process

SHAPE Exhibition
Re-Tracing the Past

SOBifying the
Exhibition

SOBifying the
Exhibition

Virtual
Touch
Machine

SOBifying the
Exhibition

Train Stations: Perceptual
representation & Spatial recognition
Tardieu et al.

Train Stations: Perceptual
representation & Spatial recognition
Tardieu et al.

Connecting Strangers
at a Train Station
Bouncing Frequency / Airplane Mirror
Balls Amplitude Synth Triggers
NIME05 Pellarin et al.

Shannon Portal
Ping Photon Drive
Wind Shepard Tones

Shannon Portal
Sound Design
Version 1
Ping

Shannon Portal
Sound Design
Version 2
Photon
Drive

Shannon Portal
Sound Design
Version 3
Wind

Shannon Portal
Sound Design
Version 4
Shepard
tones

Shannon Portal
intriguing, new sounds
clearly heard - not masked by normal activities of the space
mapping was pleasing as well as attention catching
observations and interviews - contributed to the experience
and was non-intrusive

Summary
Many open and unanswered questions...
Selecting and classify suitable sounds
Verify your mappings
Rapid prototyping with PD
Contexts / Users / Environment