The Bird's Ear View: Audification for the Spectral Analysis of Heliospheric Time Series Data.

The sciences are inundated with a tremendous volume of data, and the analysis of rapidly expanding data archives presents a persistent challenge. Previous research in the field of data sonification suggests that auditory display may serve a valuable function in the analysis of complex data sets. This dissertation uses the heliospheric sciences as a case study to empirically evaluate the use of audification (a specific form of sonification) for the spectral analysis of large time series. Three primary research questions guide this investigation, the first of which addresses the comparative capabilities of auditory and visual analysis methods in applied analysis tasks. A number of controlled within-subject studies revealed a strong correlation between auditory and visual observations, and demonstrated that auditory analysis provided a heightened sensitivity and accuracy in the detection of spectral features. The second research question addresses the capability of audification methods to reveal features that may be overlooked through visual analysis of spectrograms. A number of open-ended analysis tasks quantitatively demonstrated that participants using audification regularly discovered a greater percentage of embedded phenomena such as low-frequency wave storms. In addition, four case studies document collaborative research initiatives in which audification contributed to the acquisition of new domain-specific knowledge. The final question explores the potential benefits of audification when introduced into the workflow of a research scientist. A case study is presented in which a heliophysicist incorporated audification into their working practice, and the “Think-Aloud” protocol is applied to gain a sense for how audification augmented the researcher’s analytical abilities. Auditory observations are demonstrated to make significant contributions to ongoing research, including the detection of previously unidentified equipment-induced artifacts. This dissertation provides three primary contributions to the field: 1) an increased understanding of the comparative capabilities of auditory and visual analysis methods, 2) a methodological framework for conducting audification that may be transferred across scientific domains, and 3) a set of well-documented cases in which audification was applied to extract new knowledge from existing data archives. Collectively, this work presents a “bird’s ear view” afforded by audification methods—a macro understanding of time series data that preserves micro-level detail.PhDDesign ScienceUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111561/1/rlalexan_1.pd

Designing sound : procedural audio research based on the book by Andy Farnell

In procedural media, data normally acquired by measuring something, commonly described as sampling, is replaced by a set of computational rules (procedure) that defines the typical structure and/or behaviour of that thing. Here, a general approach to sound as a definable process, rather than a recording, is developed. By analysis of their physical and perceptual qualities, natural objects or processes that produce sound are modelled by digital Sounding Objects for use in arts and entertainments. This Thesis discusses different aspects of Procedural Audio introducing several new approaches and solutions to this emerging field of Sound Design.Em Media Procedimental, os dados os dados normalmente adquiridos através da medição de algo habitualmente designado como amostragem, são substituídos por um conjunto de regras computacionais (procedimento) que definem a estrutura típica, ou comportamento, desse elemento. Neste caso é desenvolvida uma abordagem ao som definível como um procedimento em vez de uma gravação. Através da análise das suas características físicas e perceptuais , objetos naturais ou processos que produzem som, são modelados como objetos sonoros digitais para utilização nas Artes e Entretenimento. Nesta Tese são discutidos diferentes aspectos de Áudio Procedimental, sendo introduzidas várias novas abordagens e soluções para o campo emergente do Design Sonoro

Proceedings of the Third Spaceborne Imaging Radar Symposium

This publication contains summaries of the papers presented at the Third Spaceborne Imaging Radar Symposium held at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, California, on 18-21 Jan. 1993. The purpose of the symposium was to present an overview of recent developments in the different scientific and technological fields related to spaceborne imaging radars and to present future international plans. This symposium is the third in a series of 'Spaceborne Imaging Radar' symposia held at JPL. The first symposium was held in Jan. 1983 and the second in 1986

Gravitational waves in the post-detection era: characterising binary black hole signals and populations

The detection of GW150914 has marked the start of the era of gravitational wave (GW) astronomy, and the number of detections available for astrophysical interpretation has been growing ever since. Similarly, this thesis progresses from considering individual signals to analysing the population of gravitational wave sources. We explore how much we expect to be able to learn from a loud binary black hole merger like GW150914, were it to appear in the detector networks we currently have, as well as those which are being planned or under construction. Afterwards, we develop a model which allows us to obtain unbiased estimates of the rate with which the universe produces such signals, and the distribution of intrinsic gravitational wave source parameters such as the component masses, despite the fact that the observed distribution is inherently biased by the fact that source parameters affect the loudness of the emitted signal, and contaminated by terrestrial noise artefacts inherent to the detectors. We apply this method to a number of test cases