Using multi-channel spatialization in sonification: A case study with meteorological data

Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD), Boston, MA, July 7-9, 2003.Spatialization can be used in sonification as an additional mapping dimension. Immersive spatialization also transmits more auditory data to a subject, compared to monophonic or stereophonic presentation. In this study the VBAP spatialization method is applied to the sonification of meteorological data gathered from a large geographical area in two different listening conditions. Parameter-driven FM synthesis, using JSyn (a Java-based sound API) [1] was used to reinforce the spatialization with timbral coloring. The sonification, designed to display a year of data in about twenty minutes, afforded a sense of storm movement, North-South seasonal variation, and comparison between years