The Strategy of the Commons: Modelling the Annual Cost of Successful ICT Services for European Research

The provision of ICT services for research is increasingly using Cloud services to complement the traditional federation of computing centres. Due to the complex funding structure and differences in the basic business model, comparing the cost-effectiveness of these options requires a new approach to cost assessment. This paper presents a cost assessment method addressing the limitations of the standard methods and some of the initial results of the study. This acts as an illustration of the kind of cost assessment issues high-utilisation rate ICT services should consider when choosing between different infrastructure options. The research is co-funded by the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme through the e-FISCAL project (contract number RI-283449)

Where's that sound? Exploring arbitrary user classifications of sounds for audio collection management

Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD), Boston, MA, July 7-9, 2003.Collections of sound and music of increasing size and diversity are used both by general personal computer users and multimedia designers. Browsing audio collections poses several challenges to the design of effective user interfaces. In this paper, we report results from a new version of the Sonic Browser for managing general sound resources on personal computers. In particular, we have evaluated browsing of everyday sounds. The investigation was directed at comparing browsing of audio resources with arbitrary classifications. The problem of sound resource browsing for multimedia designers is the specific area of focus for our experiment. Finally, we conclude with current trends of our approach for further improvement of the system

Wearable Setup for Gesture and Motion based Closed Loop Audio-Haptic Interaction

Großhauser T, Hermann T. Wearable Setup for Gesture and Motion based Closed Loop Audio-Haptic Interaction. In: Brazil E, ed. Proceedings of the 16th International Community for Auditory Display. Washington, USA: International Community for Auditory Display; 2010: 31-38.The wearable sensor and feedback system presented in this paper is a type of audio-haptic display which contains on board sensors, embedded sound synthesis, external sensors, and on the feedback side a loudspeaker and several vibrating motors. The so-called "embedded sonification" in this case here is an onboard IC with implemented sound synthesis. This is adjusted directly by the user and/or controlled in real-time by the sensors, which are on the board or fixed on the human body and connected to the board via cable or radio frequency transmission. Direct audio out and tactile feedback closes the loop between the wearable board and the user. In many situations, this setup can serve as a complement to visual output, e.g. exploring data in 3D-space or learning motion and gestures in dance, sports or outdoor and every-day activities. A new metaphor for interactive acoustical augmentation is introduced, the so called "audio loupe". In this case it means the sonification of minimal movements or state changes, which can sometimes hardly be perceived visually or corporal. These are for example small jitters or deviations of predefined ideal gestures or movements. Our system is easy to use, it even allows operation without an external computer. We demonstrate and outline the benefits of our wearable interactive setup in highly skilled motion learning scenarios in dance and sports

Exploring concurrent auditory icon recognition

Presented at the 15th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2009), Copenhagen, Denmark, May 18-22, 2009This poster explores and deepens existing studies into the identi- fication of concurrently presented auditory icons. The motivation for this work was to gain a better understanding of auditory icons where several are played together simultaneously. A set of de- scriptors for everyday sounds were collected from participants and classified into action and object categories. The exploration con- sidered the hypothesis that when auditory icons did not have the same object or action descriptors that the identifications of the au- ditory icons would improve. This was studied in conditions where three, six, and nine sounds were simultaneously presented. These conditions had two distinct sub-categories, the first category used a prior classification of sounds to ensure no sound pair in the con- dition had the same action or object properties. The second sub- category used random selection of the sounds meaning that similar sound could exist within the particular condition. A onset-to-onset gap of 300 ms between sounds being presented was used. The re- sults supports earlier findings and showed that distinguishing be- tween object and action properties of auditory icons did improve their identification accuracy. It was found that prior classification allows listeners to achieve close to a 10% identification improve- ment in accuracy

Investigation of multiple visualisation techniques and dynamic queries in conjunction with direct sonification to support the browsing of audio resources

In this thesis, a prototype system for the browsing of audio resources was developed and an initial evaluation of this system was performed. The main contributions of this thesis are dynamic queries and multiple visualisation techniques in conjunction with direct sonification. Dynamic queries are queries that provide immediate feedback while maintaining consistency between the queries themselves and the graphical/auditory display. The multiple visualisation techniques are used to present different representations of collections of audio resources. Exploring the multiple representations allows for the discovery of new relationships within the audio collection. Existing techniques and mechanisms were examined from the areas of visual and auditory browsing; the conclusions drawn from this examination informed our design choices for the prototype system. The exploratory investigation of the prototype system focused on the specific domain of sound design. A series of tasks in the domain gauges the users subjective experience and investigates the use of our system within a real-world situation

Sonic browsing: An auditory tool for multimedia asset management

Presented at the 7th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD), Espoo, Finland, July 29-August 1, 2001.In previous work, the Sonic Browser was used for browsing large data sets of music [1]. In this paper, we report results from an updated version of the Sonic Browser for managing general sound resources on personal computers. In particular, we have evaluated browsing of everyday sounds. The investigation was directed at comparing browsing single versus multiple stream audio. The problem of sound resource browsing for multimedia designers is the specific area of focus for our experiment. Finally, we conclude with current trends of our research for further improvement of the system

Investigating Ambient Auditory Information Systems

This paper discusses an exploration using a concurrent auditory displays for awareness and lightweight interactions. The design of this type of system and comparisons to existing awareness tools are discussed. The auditory display system in this exploration was designed to explore, using concurrent auditory icons, the issue of group awareness. The sounds used in this auditory display where selected based on their identification derived from individual's personal constructs using the Repertory Grid Technique. The system was designed to create a `soundscape' of concurrent ecological sounds mapped to the individual's availability and to the group activities, respectively. In this paper we present an auditory display using auditory icons to create an interactive soundscape that support opportunistic interactions and awareness. Presence and activity are conveyed by changes in the soundscape. Our goal in this work is to explore the potential of this type of system for supporting awareness and lightweight interactions