Experiments with the Sonic Browser

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Experiments with the Sonic Browser

• Eoin Brazil, Mikael Fernström
• Interaction Design Centre
• University of Limerick, IRELAND
• www.idc.ul.ie

Laura Ottaviani Università di Verona,
Dipartimento Scientico e Tecnologico, ITALY
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Outline

• Introduction
• The Sonic Browser
• Audio Similarity Rating Tool
• Sound Designer Tool
• Conclussions

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Introduction 1

• A new approach to psychophysical experiments for
  scaling audio stimuli
• Browsing Sorting of a stimuli set
• Interactive 2-dimensional interface for creating
  a similarity space for audio
• Method can be used to supplement pairwise
  comparison

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Introduction 2

• Premix environment via the use of an Aura
• Browsing Searching of a sound collection
• Dynamic property filtering mechanisms
• Tight Coupling
• Objects under the Aura are high-lighted and
  played simultaneously
• Changes in one visualisation are reflected in
  others

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Sonic Browser

• Screenscape and Soundscape
• Multiple coupled visualisations
• Direct sound representation
• Data logging
• Dynamic property filter using text filtering or
  AlphaSliders

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Sonic Browser - Visual

• Visual Representation
• Star-field, TreeMap, HyperTree, TouchGraph
  visualisations
• Arbitrary mapping, controlled by the user
• shape, colour, size, horizontal and vertical
  location
• Sounds playing are high-lighted.

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Sonic Browser - Auditory

• Audio Direct representation of sounds
• Idea -gt use cocktail party effect to exploit
  ability to switch between sounds in auditory
  scene
• Sounds are panned out in a stereo field
  controlled by the visual location of the sounds
  under the cursor / aura.
• The aura is user controlled and can be reduced or
  increased in size
• By reducing the aura allows for zooming in on a
  particular sound/s.

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Sonic Browser Usage

• Cursor on object - the object plays, max volume,
  centered.
• Click - show dialogue box with details of the
  properties of the sounds
• Double-click - access the object, e.g. show the
  details in the database, edit, etc.
• Single-click Drag move the sound in display

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Study - Overview

• Explore an interactive method for gathering a
  audio similarity space
• Explore if participants noticed any differences
  between sounds real versus synthesised
• Examine the applications suitability for this
  type of scenario
• Explore if the application provides an engaging
  interface for participant in this type of scenario

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Users and Data set

• Postgraduates in the CSIS at UL
• contained 18 sounds, three types
• 6 recorded sounds
• 6 PD-modules modelling impact interactions of two
  modal resonators simplified to return only one
  mode
• 6 PD-modules modelling impact interactions of two
  modal resonators as well as the dropping event

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PD Module
Rath, M. et al, An Introductory Catalog of
Computer Synthesized Contact Sounds in Real-Time,
Colloquium on Musical Informatics 2003
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Tasks

• Familiarisation
• practice tasks
• Testing
• similar way with a different sound data set and
  tasks
• Post testing debrief questionnaire

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Experiment Screenshot
perceived height of the object drop
Aura
perceived size of the dropped object
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Users Perceived Scaling
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Study Findings

• detailed comparison without reference points is
  very difficult and would be much easier with only
  a single scale'
• aura gives a comparison for similar sounds''
• the longer I spent working with the sounds, the
  more difficult it was to sort them''
• Easy to learn and understand how to use the
  application for the tasks

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Study Conclusions

• Synthesised sounds, even when found to be
  unrealistic, can still convey information in two
  dimensions and even if one mode sounds
• Realism of a sound does not affect its ability to
  convey information about particular perceptual
  dimensions - sound cartoonification.

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Future Work Reference

• Development of zoom
• Addition of mouse click context menu
• Addition of audio scrubbing for swifter browsing
  of individual sounds
• Inclusion of tagging or shading for files of
  interest linked to sound editor applications
• Use of cue points to play sound areas/regions of
  interest
• Website http//www.idc.ul.ie
• Sonic Browser available from http//richie.
  idc.ul.ie/eoin/ or http//www.soundobject.org