Sonification of Remote Sensing Data: Initial Experiment

We are generating music from a particular view of a multi-dimensional geographic information system (GIS) data set to alert a viewer to the existence of hidden clusters of data points. This paper describes some results from an early experiment with generating music from a 2-d slice of the data and testing whether these representations are easily understood by beginning users. 1. Basic Definitions Recently, the term "visualization " has taken on the extended meaning of the "presentation of information to the ears, or the fingers, or even the nose "[3]. This paper describes work in sonification. Sonification is the conversion of relations in a dat

A GRAPHIC TOOL FOR TEACHING PRECALCULUS SKILL TO BLIND STUDENTS

This paper discusses the development of a graphic tool to assist in the teaching of pre-calculus skills to blind students. More specifically, it reviews previous and on-going efforts to develop an instrument that will facilitate or enable blind students to examine and explore data and abstract graphs, and other mathematic entities haptically. The paper also discusses current research plans to explore the combination of auditory and haptic stimuli to present mathematical information and concepts in a graphic, but nonvisual form. In particular, much of this paper examines a number of research issues that, in the opinion of the research team, must be studied, if not resolved in order to effectively employ haptic and sonification techniques to the presentation of graphic information. In the end, the purpose of these efforts is to provide a readily useable tool that will empower blind students to learn mathematical concept in a manner comparable to sighted students. 1

Approach

We describe the design and initial implementation of a system for constructing a haptic model of a mathematical function for exploration using a PHANToM. The model is that of a block of balsa wood with the trace of the function carved into its surface. Problem Statement It is difficult to teach some kinds of mathematics without using graphical representations of functions. In this paper we describe the design of a proposed haptic application and the implementation of a prototype using a PHANToM which will allow a blind student to feel the shape of a function being studied. Related Work Some of our previous work has been in constructing PHANToM-based haptic maps for mobility training. [1] Other VE Lab members are constructing haptic models of atoms. [2