Interaction patterns for auditory user interfaces

Presented at the 11th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2005)This paper proposes the use of interaction patterns in the design process of auditory displays in human-computer interaction. To avoid introducing visual concepts in auditory design, a common ground for developing user interfaces without determining their means of representation is proposed. This meta domain allows for the design of user interfaces which can be equally realised in different interaction modalities or multi-modal settings. Although this work focuses on the auditory domain the concept shown is developed keeping in mind that it should be equally applicable in other modalities. A set of mode independent interaction patterns for design in the meta domain are introduced along with their transformation into the auditory domain. A real world application was chosen to evaluate the approach. MS Explorer was analysed, described through the mode independent interaction patterns and transformed into the auditory domain making extensive use of 3D audio rendering techniques. The result, a virtual audio reality version of a file manager, was evaluated with normally sighted persons as well as visually impaired and blind participants showing the feasibility and usability of the approach

Tangible auditory interfaces : combining auditory displays and tangible interfaces

Bovermann T. Tangible auditory interfaces : combining auditory displays and tangible interfaces. Bielefeld (Germany): Bielefeld University; 2009.Tangible Auditory Interfaces (TAIs) investigates into the capabilities of the interconnection of Tangible User Interfaces and Auditory Displays. TAIs utilise artificial physical objects as well as soundscapes to represent digital information. The interconnection of the two fields establishes a tight coupling between information and operation that is based on the human's familiarity with the incorporated interrelations. This work gives a formal introduction to TAIs and shows their key features at hand of seven proof of concept applications

Auditory Display Design : An Investigation of a Design Pattern Approach

PhDThis thesis investigates the design of audio for feedback in human-technology interaction— auditory displays. Despite promising progress in research and the potential benefits, we currently see little impact of audio in everyday interfaces. Changing interaction paradigms, new contexts of use and inclusive design principles, however, increase the need for an efficient, non-visual means of conveying information. Motivated by these needs, this work describes the development and evaluation of a methodological design framework, aiming to enhance knowledge and skill transfer in auditory display design and to enable designers to build more efficient and compelling auditory solutions. The work starts by investigating the current practice in designing audio in the user interface. A survey amongst practitioners and researchers in the field and a literature study of research papers highlighted the need for a structured design approach. Building on these results, paco – pattern design in the context space has been developed, a framework providing methods to capture, apply and refine design knowledge through design patterns. A key element of paco, the context space, serves as the organising principle for patterns, artefacts and design problems and supports designers in conceptualising the design space. The evaluation of paco is the first comparative study of a design methodology in this area. Experts in auditory display design and novice designers participated in a series of experiments to determine the usefulness of the framework. The evaluation demonstrated that paco facilitates the transfer of design knowledge and skill between experts and novices as well as promoting reflection and recording of design rationale. Alongside these principle achievements, important insights have been gained about the design process which lay the foundations for future research into this subject area. This work contributes to the field of auditory display as it reflects on the current practice and proposes a means of supporting designers to communicate, reason about and build on each other’s work more efficiently. The broader field of human-computer interaction may also benefit from the availability of design guidance for exploiting the auditory modality to answer the challenges of future interaction design. Finally, with paco a generic methodology in the field of design patterns was proposed, potentially similarly beneficial to other designing disciplines

Multi-Listener Auditory Displays

This thesis investigates how team working principles can be applied to Auditory Displays (AD). During this work it was established that there the level of collaboration and team work within the AD community was low and that this community would benefit from a enhanced collaborative approach. The increased use of collaborative techniques will benefit the AD community by increasing quality, knowledge transfer, synergy, and enhancing innovation. The reader is introduced to a novel approach to collaborative AD entitled Multi-listener Auditory Displays (MLAD). This work focused upon two areas of MLAD distributed AD teams and virtual AD teams. A distributed AD team is a team of participants who work upon a common task at different times and locations. The distributed approach was found to work effectively when designing ADs that work upon large scale data sets such as that found in big data. A virtual AD team is a group of participants who work upon a common task simultaneously and in separate locations. A virtual AD team is assisted by computer technology such as video conferencing and email. The virtual auditory display team was found to work well by enabling a team to work more effectively together who were geographically spread. Two pilot studies are included; SonicSETI is an example of a distributed AD team, where a remote group of listeners have background white noise playing, and use passive listening to detect anomalous candidate signals; and a geographically diverse virtual AD team that collaborates through electronic technology on an auditory display which sonifies a database of red wine measurements. A workshop was organised at a conference which focused upon ensemble auditory displays with a group of participants who were co- located

Real-Time Electroencephalogram Sonification for Neurofeedback

Electroencephalography (EEG) is the measurement via the scalp of the electrical activity of the brain. The established therapeutic intervention of neurofeedback involves presenting people with their own EEG in real-time to enable them to modify their EEG for purposes of improving performance or health. The aim of this research is to develop and validate real-time sonifications of EEG for use in neurofeedback and methods for assessing such sonifications. Neurofeedback generally uses a visual display. Where auditory feedback is used, it is mostly limited to pre-recorded sounds triggered by the EEG activity crossing a threshold. However, EEG generates time-series data with meaningful detail at fine temporal resolution and with complex temporal dynamics. Human hearing has a much higher temporal resolution than human vision, and auditory displays do not require people to focus on a screen with their eyes open for extended periods of time – e.g. if they are engaged in some other task. Sonification of EEG could allow more rapid, contingent, salient and temporally detailed feedback. This could improve the efficiency of neurofeedback training and reduce the number and duration of sessions for successful neurofeedback. The same two deliberately simple sonification techniques were used in all three experiments of this research: Amplitude Modulation (AM) sonification, which maps the fluctuations in the power of the EEG to the volume of a pure tone; and Frequency Modulation (FM) sonification, which uses the changes in the EEG power to modify the frequency. Measures included, a listening task, NASA task load index; a measure of how much work it was to do the task, Pre & post measures of mood, and EEG. The first experiment used pre-recorded single channel EEG and participants were asked to listen to the sound of the sonified EEG and try and track the activity that they could hear by moving a slider on a computer screen using a computer mouse. This provided a quantitative assessment of how well people could perceive the sonified fluctuations in EEG level. The tracking accuracy scores were higher for the FM sonification but self-assessments of task load rated the AM sonification as easier to track. The second experiment used the same two sonifications, in a real neurofeedback task using participants own live EEG. Unbeknownst to the participants the neurofeedback task was designed to improve mood. A Pre-Post questionnaire showed that participants changed their self-rated mood in the intended direction with the EEG training, but there was no statistically significant change in EEG. Again the FM sonification showed a better performance but AM was rated as less effortful. The performance of sonifications in the tracking task in experiment 1 was found to predict their relative efficacy at blind self-rated mood modification in experiment 2. The third experiment used both the tracking as in experiment 1 and neurofeedback tasks as in experiment 2, but with modified versions of the AM and FM sonifications to allow two-channel EEG sonifications. This experiment introduced a physical slider as opposed to a mouse for the tracking task. Tracking accuracy increased, but this time no significant difference was found between the two sonification techniques on the tracking task. In the training task, once more the blind self-rated mood did improve in the intended direction with the EEG training, but as again there was no significant change in EEG, this cannot necessarily be attributed to the neurofeedback. There was only a slight difference between the two sonification techniques in the effort measure. In this way, a prototype method has been devised and validated for the quantitative assessment of real-time EEG sonifications. Conventional evaluations of neurofeedback techniques are expensive and time consuming. By contrast, this method potentially provides a rapid, objective and efficient method for evaluating the suitability of candidate sonifications for EEG neurofeedback

Planeamiento estratégico para el sector ferroviario de carga para Colombia

La economía colombiana se ha caracterizado por tener una dependencia de bienes primarios, en especial la minería y los hidrocarburos, como principales aportantes del producto interno bruto. Producto de ello se ha potencializado la desindustrialización (i.e., bienes secundarios) y en materia de servicios (i.e., bienes terciarios), y los avances han sido tímidos. En tal sentido, el País merece cambios disruptivos que conlleven a equilibrar la generación de su producto interno y deje de lado la dependencia de las materias primas como principal generador de insumos en su presupuesto nacional. Para poder lograr que la producción nacional sea competitiva, no solo para el consumo interno sino para el internacional es necesario que el País construya una red de transporte de carga con precios asequibles para los productores. Es por ello, que el Sector Ferroviario de Carga para Colombia emerge como una de las soluciones sostenibles, no solo en materia de competitividad para la producción nacional, sino también para la atracción de inversionistas a largo plazo que contribuyan a la generación de empleos. El transporte férreo será la columna del sistema multimodal que reducirá el costo de transporte de carga en una proporción de cuatro a uno. A 2015, el subsector ferroviario no cuenta con leyes orgánicas, con un modelo de negocio claro, ni con un plan estratégico multimodal. Este trabajo busca proponer un marco regulatorio integral donde el sistema férreo sea el aspecto central, con modelos de negocios más eficientes y eficaces que en el pasado, en el marco de las alianzas público privadas (APP). El objetivo de desarrollar el presente documento es contar con una herramienta integrada y práctica que sea soporte para la toma de decisiones para el futuro del Sector Ferroviario de Carga para Colombia, y que permita ajustarse a las coyunturas del mercado sin perder el norte trazado, más aún en un Sector que tiene un alto impacto en el crecimiento de la economía y que es interdependiente con otros medios de transporte. El Sector Ferroviario de Carga para Colombia presenta ventajas competitivas que deben potencializarse para el desarrollo económico del País. En el aspecto comercial, la intermodalidad del transporte en Colombia, una vez se ponga en marcha un plan de recuperación de las vías férreas actuales y que estas se interconecten con otros sistemas de transporte, generará beneficios a los productores quienes se beneficiarían de mejores precios, no solo para propósitos de exportación sino para competir en el ámbito local. La adquisición de tecnología de última generación y ambientalmente amigable, generará no solo sostenibilidad sino que generará posibilidad de reducciones de tarifas impositivas a través del incentivo tributario previsto por el Gobierno Nacional en materia de uso de tecnologías avanzadas. El desarrollo de una regulación para el Sector, en la que se facilite y promueva la inversión público-privada, se convierte en una de las ventajas en materia de financiación de proyectos de infraestructura en el Sector Ferroviario de Carga para Colombia. Dicha normatividad debe encaminarse a facilitar las inversiones de instituciones financieras, en especial a las administradoras de fondos de pensiones. La integración horizontal con otros medios de transporte permitirá el desarrollo económico no solo del Sector Ferroviario de Carga para Colombia, sino que apoyará a otros sectores de transporte de carga y pasajeros, necesarios para el mejoramiento continuo de precios de los productores y para facilitar la movilidad de los ciudadanos en el territorio colombiano. Para el desarrollo de estas ventajas competitivas se han planteado cinco objetivos a largo plazo: (a) Crear un marco legal y reglamentario de la política pública para el Sector Ferroviario de Carga para Colombia de acuerdo con los estándares internacionales de la ALAF, UIC, COTIF, y la OTIF. A 2014 no existe este marco; (b) A 2030 el Sector Ferroviario de Carga para Colombia movilizará 120 millones de toneladas en el mercado internacional. En 2014 movilizó 43 millones de toneladas; (c) Desde 2015 hasta 2030, las inversiones por las APP totalizarán US$67.800 millones en el Sector Ferroviario de Carga en la rehabilitación, recuperación, y construcción de corredores férreos de doble vía con trocha estándar. En 2014 se invirtieron US$212 millones; (d) A 2030, reducir el impacto ambiental en un 40% de las emisiones de CO2 que genera el Sector Ferroviario de Carga para Colombia. En 2014 las emisiones representaron el 14% de las emisiones totales; y (e) A 2030, el Sector Ferroviario de Carga para Colombia destinará un 1% del total de las inversiones para el mejoramiento de la calidad de vida a las familias ubicadas alrededor de los corredores férreos. En 2014 no se destinaron recursos. La puesta en marcha de las nueve estrategias retenidas potencializará las ventajas competitivas del Sector, lo cual redundará en la atracción, no solo de inversión privada (i.e., extranjera o local), sino también de inversión pública. Las APP podrán potencializar al Sector y por ende generaría un polo de desarrollo económico disruptivo, puesto que se equilibraría la balanza de producción que a 2015 es altamente dependiente de materias primas, especialmente hidrocarburosThe Colombian economy has been characterized by its dependence on commodities, particularly mining and oil and gas, as the main contributors to its GDP. As a consequence, deindustrialization (i.e., of secondary goods) has been empowered and, as far as services (i.e., tertiary goods) are concerned, progress has been timid. In this regard, the country is worthy of disruptive changes that lead to a balance in the generation of its domestic production and the putting aside of its dependence on raw materials as the main generator of inputs into the national budget. To make national production more competitive, not only for domestic consumption but also for the international market, it is necessary for the country to build a freight transportation network that is cost-efficient for producers. This is why the rail freight sector emerges as one of the sustainable solutions, not only in terms of competitiveness for domestic production but also as an attractive option for long-term investors who contribute to the creation of employment. Railway transportation will be the backbone of the multimodal system that will reduce freight movement costs at a ratio of 4 to 1. Today, the railway subsector lacks organic laws, a clear business model, and a multimodal strategic plan. This paper aims to propose a comprehensive regulatory framework in which the railway is the main element of the transportation system, based on a more efficient and effective business model and within the framework of public-private alliances (PPA), an arrangement that has not been used in the past. The aim of this document is to provide an integral and practical tool for future decision-making in the Colombian rail freight sector that helps it to adjust to market situations without losing its way, especially in a sector that has a high impact on economic growth and is interdependent on other means of transport. The Colombian railway transport sector has competitive advantages that should be exploited for the economic development of the country. Once a recovery plan for the current railways is implemented and it is interconnected with other transportation alternatives, from a commercialization point of view, intermodal transportation in Colombia will offer advantages to producers who will be able to lower their pricing for exporting purposes and to compete in the local market. The acquisition of the latest and environmentally friendly technology will generate not only sustainability but also render opportunities to reduce tax rates and to take advantage of tax incentives provided by the Government for the use of advanced technologies. The development of laws and regulations for the sector, where public-private investment is promoted, will be advantageous for the financing of infrastructure projects in the Colombian freight railway sector. Such legislation should promote investment from financial institutions, especially from pension fund managers. Horizontal integration with other transport modes will allows not only economic development of the Colombian Rail Freight sector, but also will support other in-country freight and passenger transportation sectors that are necessary for the continuous improvement of production prices and to facilitate mobility of citizens in Colombia. In order to develop these competitive advantages, five long-term goals have been proposed: (a) To establish a legal and regulatory framework of public policy for the Colombian Rail Freight Sector in accordance with international standards ALAF, UIC, COTIF and OTIF. As of 2014, this framework is nonexistent; (b) for the Colombian Rail Freight Sector to mobilize 120 million tons of freight in the international market by the year 2030. In 2014 it mobilized 43 million tons; (c) to have the public-private alliances invest US$67.8 million into the rehabilitation, recovery and construction of double track standard gauge railways in the Colombian rail system, between the years 2015 and 2030. In 2014, US$212 million was invested; (d) to reduce by 40% of the environmental impact of CO2 emissions generated by the Colombian Rail Freight Sector by the year 2030. Its emissions in 2014 accounted for 14% of total CO2 emissions (Legicomex.com, 2013); and (e) to have the Rail Freight Sector in Colombia allocate 1% of total investments to improving the quality of life of families located in the vicinity of the railways by 2030. In 2014 no resources were allocated. The implementation of the nine retained competitive advantage strategies will strengthen the competitive advantages of the rail freight sector, and will attract not only private investors (i.e., foreign or local), but also public investment. Public-private partnerships will also empower the sector and thus generate disruptive economic development that will help better balance production that today is highly dependent on raw materials and oil and gasTesi

The Development and Evaluation of an Approach to Auditory Display Design Based on Soundtrack Composition

PhDThis thesis presents the development and evaluation of a new approach (Sound- TrAD) to designing auditory interfaces. The proposed approach combines practices and concepts from film soundtrack composition with established approaches to general user interface design. The synthesis of the two design approaches from different areas of design into a novel approach may be viewed as an example of conceptual integration, (also known as conceptual blending). The process of developing and evaluating SoundTrAD broadly follows a methodology of Research through Design. The thesis presents four user studies as part of an iterative design and evaluation process. Each study involves a mixture of expert and novice end-users which provides new information and identifi es new questions and design issues for the subsequent studies. The fi rst study explores how an idea from fim composition (the cue sheet) can be used in auditory interface design to help designers place and organise sound elements, and to better understand auditory design spaces. In order to make this concept work in the new context, it is combined with the scenario concept from general interaction design to provide designers with reference linear sequences of events and actions. The second study used thematic analysis to investigate how information to be sonifed can be characterised and analysed for features that can be mapped in to sound. The study also explores the development of a timeline on which the sound design ideas from soundtrack composition for individual events, can be placed and in principle moved in order to cater for multiple use-case scenarios. The third study presents an iteration of this, including further development of both the task analysis and mapping technique. The study also explores the idea in principle of an interactive timeline that can be manipulated by the designer in order to re-arrange and audition sound events. The final study brings the studies together by obtaining feedback on the success of a nal version of SoundTrAD.RCUK under the Digital Economy Doctoral Training Centre schem