Understanding concurrent earcons: applying auditory scene analysis principles to concurrent earcon recognition

Two investigations into the identification of concurrently presented, structured sounds, called earcons were carried out. One of the experiments investigated how varying the number of concurrently presented earcons affected their identification. It was found that varying the number had a significant effect on the proportion of earcons identified. Reducing the number of concurrently presented earcons lead to a general increase in the proportion of presented earcons successfully identified. The second experiment investigated how modifying the earcons and their presentation, using techniques influenced by auditory scene analysis, affected earcon identification. It was found that both modifying the earcons such that each was presented with a unique timbre, and altering their presentation such that there was a 300 ms onset-to-onset time delay between each earcon were found to significantly increase identification. Guidelines were drawn from this work to assist future interface designers when incorporating concurrently presented earcons

SoundBar: Exploiting Multiple Views in Multimodal Graph

In this paper we discuss why access to mathematical graphs is problematic for visually impaired people. By a review of graph understanding theory and interviews with visually impaired users, we explain why current non-visual representations are unlikely to provide effective access to graphs. We propose the use of multiple views of the graph, each providing quick access to specific information as a way to improve graph usability. We then introduce a specific multiple view system to improve access to bar graphs called SoundBar which provides an additional quick audio overview of the graph. An evaluation of SoundBar revealed that additional views significantly increased accuracy and reduced time taken in a question answering task

Graph Builder: Constructing Non-visual

This paper introduces a novel application called Graph Builder, which allows visually impaired people to interactively construct bar graphs using a force feedback device. We discuss the limitations of current technology to allow such interactive construction and explain why, in educational environments, such interactive construction is important. Evaluations of Graph Builder showed that users could construct graphs accurately. However results showed that a large number of `off-by-one' errors occurred, where the bar was set either one unit too high or too low. Revisions to the mechanism to manipulate bars were made, and further non-speech audio feedback was added. A further evaluation showing that the proportion of `off-by-one' errors had been reduce

FISHEARS - The Design of a Multimodal Focus and Context System

this paper we describe a new focus and context visualization technique called multimodal focus and context. This technique uses a hybrid visual and spatialized audio display space to overcome the limited visual displays of mobile devices. We demonstrate the technique by applying it to maps of theme park

An investigation into the identification of concurrently presented earcons

Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD), Boston, MA, July 7-9, 2003.In this paper we describe an experiment investigating the ability of participants to identify multiple, concurrently playing structured sounds, called earcons. Several different sets of earcons were compared, one ``state of the art'' set based on the guidelines of Brewster [1], and other sets of earcons modified to take account of auditory scene analysis principles. The effect of the number of concurrently playing earcons on identification was also investigated, with instances of 1, 2, 3 and 4 concurrently playing earcons tested. Overall, performance was low, with less than two earcons being successfully identified in any condition. However it was found that both staggering the onset times of each earcon, as well as presenting each earcon with a unique timbre, had a significantly positive effect on identification

Advantages And Issues With Concurrent Audio Presentation As Part Of An Auditory Display

This paper presents an overview of the concurrent presentation of sound as part of an auditory display. The reasons why designers would wish to use concurrent sound presentation (such as increasing communication bandwidth and allowing comparisons between data to be more easily made) are discussed and examples given. The paper then discusses the problems that can occur when sounds are concurrently presented before summarising and critically evaluating work by the authors on the identification of concurrently presented earcons

Empirically Derived Guidelines For The Presentation Of Concurrent Earcons

This paper presents a set of empirically derived guidelines for the presentation of concurrent earcons (short structured audio messages which can be used to effectively communicate information to users [3]). When earcons are presented in such a way, they interfere with each other, making it difficult to determine the information encoded within them. The guidelines presented in this paper cover the impact of varying the number of earcons on their identification as well as how the design and presentation of earcons may be modified to reduce interference when concurrently presented