Focused Audification and the optimization of its parameters

Abstract

We present a sonification method which we call Focused Audification (FA; previously: Augmented Audification) that allows to expand pure audification in a flexible way. It is based on a combination of single-side-band modulation and a pitch modulation of the original data stream. Based on two free parameters, the sonification's frequency range is adjustable to the human hearing range and allows to interactively zoom into the data set at any scale. The parameters have been adjusted in a multimodal experiment on cardiac data by laypeople. Following from these results we suggest a procedure for parameter optimization to achieve an optimal listening range for any data set, adjusted to human speech. Keywords Sonification • Auditory display • Audification • Auditory graph • ECG data Abbreviations D/A Digital-to-analog [converter] ECG Electrocardiogram FA Focused Audification FM Frequency modulation GUI Graphical user interface MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface QUAD Quadratic slider design in GUI (see Sect. 5.1) RMS Root mean squared SSB Single-sideband modulation SQRT Squared slider design in GUI (see Sect. 5.1

Auditory displays and auditory user interfaces: art, design, science, and research

“…Groß-Vogt, Frank, and Höldrich presented a novel sonification strategy, called "focused audification" with an example of seismological data [3]. By modulating both single-sideband and a pitch of the original data stream, this method enabled sonification's frequency range to be scalable and adjustable to human hearing range.…”