Soundwalking in Games

This paper argues for a practice of soundwalking in games as a form of virtual place-making and as a method for examining how sound design in games constructs particular values, realities, and attitudes to listening. Several case studies are discussed including Fortnite, Last of Us, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Season

The role of participatory workshops in investigating narrative and sound ecologies in the design of an ambient intelligence audio display

We describe two participatory workshops conducted to support design decisions in the making of the audio display for an ambient intelligent game platform. The workshops discussed here explore specific issues of players’ interactions with sound and auditory display design. The workshops helped move our design process forward by specifying the role of narrative and sound ecologies in our design. They clarified the role of sound in creating narrative coherence, guiding player actions, and supporting group interaction. We describe the workshops, the auditory display issues we addressed, discuss how the workshops helped inform our subsequent design, and extend recommendations on how participatory workshops can be used by other designers of auditory displays

Understanding aural fluency in auditory display design for ambient intelligent environments

This paper presents the design and some evaluation results from the auditory display model of an ambient intelligent game named socio-ec(h)o. socio-ec(h)o is played physically by a team of four, and displays information via a responsive environment of light and sound. Based on a study of 56 participants involving both qualitative and preliminary quantitative analysis, we present our findings to date as they relate to the auditory display model, future directions and implications. Based on our design and evaluation experience we begin building a theoretical understanding for the unique requirements of informative sonic displays in ambient intelligent and ubiquitous computing systems. We develop and discuss the emerging research concept of aural fluency in ambient intelligent settings

AmbientSonic Map: Towards a new conceptualization of sound design for games

This paper presents an overview of the main features of sound design for games, and argues for a new conceptualization of it, beginning with a closer look at the role of sound as feedback for gameplay. The paper then proposes and details a new approach for sound feedback in games, which provides ambient, intensity-based sonic display that not only responds to, but also guides the player towards the solution of the game. A pilot study and leading outcomes from it are presented, in the hopes of laying a foundation for future investigations into this type of sonic feedback

Exploring ambient sound techniques in the design of responsive environments for children

This paper describes the theoretical framework, design, implementation and results from an exploratory informant workshop that examines an alternative approach to sound feedback in the design of responsive environments for children. This workshop offers preliminary directions and models for using intensity-based ambient sound display in the design of interactive learning environments for children that offer assistance in task-oriented activities. We see the value of this research in developing a more cohesive and ecological model for use of audio feedback in the design of embedded interactions for children. The approach presented here takes the design of multi-modal feedback beyond being experiential, to one that supports learning and problem solving

Investigating sound intensity gradients as feedback for embodied learning

This paper explores an intensity-based approach to sound feedback in systems for embodied learning. We describe a theoretical framework, design guidelines, and the implementation of and results from an informant workshop. The specific context of embodied activity is considered in light of the challenges of designing meaningful sound feedback, and a design approach is shown to be a generative way of uncovering significant sound design patterns. The exploratory workshop offers preliminary directions and design guidelines for using intensity-based ambient sound display in interactive learning environments. The value of this research is in its contribution towards the development of a cohesive and ecologically valid model for using audio feedback in systems, which can guide embodied interaction. The approach presented here suggests ways that multi-modal auditory feedback can support interactive collaborative learning and problem solving

Building as Interface: Sustainable Educational Ecologies

This paper begins with the most obvious, and yet most elusive, of educational media ecologies, the buildings which are ‹home› to pedagogic communication and interaction, and considers how we might understand «building as interface», construed first as a noun, («a structure with roof and walls» – OED) referring to places as physical structures, and then as a verb, («the action or trade of constructing something» – OED), referring to the activities of construction through which we can engage technologies central to theory, research and practice. Our concern is with exploring the larger question of educational sustainability: with what ‹sustainability› means when applied to a specifically educational context, and with the sustainability of the kinds of emerging educational environments in which new information and communications technologies play a significant role. This question of sustainable educational environments is driven by a need to be responsible and accountable for the impact of the technologies and practices we eagerly embrace in the name of «21st century learning», even as prospects for a 22nd century are so rapidly receding from view. As one prominent media ecologist put the point: «we have to find the environments in which it will be possible to live with our new inventions» (McLuhan 1967, 124)

Sound Stories: A Context-Based Study of Everyday Listening to Augmented Soundscapes

With an increasing number of everyday operations and communications becoming both automated and autonomous, ambient intelligent soundscapes are transforming to accommodate additional sonic feedback, and with it, new frameworks of listening. While this type of research and design of audio augmented technology is not new, the impact pre-existing acoustic environments upon listeners’ sense-making activities is rarely considered holistically. Much of the study into the design of effective auditory displays focuses on perceptual acuity and correct source identification, often at the expense of understanding the context of meaning-making. This paper presents a study involving 70 participants who listened to unidentified audio recordings of two archetypal everyday urban sound environments naturally containing artificial signals as well as typical sounds. Using a ThinkAloud protocol we investigated listeners’ approaches to meaning-making in both semantic and temporal dimensions. Through a semantic content analysis, we articulate five aspects of sonic meaning-making: spatial, descriptive, experiential, associational and narrative. We further analyse the use of these perceptual elements on a temporal plane, in order to investigate how listeners construct a narrative of what they hear in real-time, naturally evolving as each subsequent sound event is interpreted. Results suggest that while listeners attend to sound events and spatial characteristics of a sound environment at the beginning of a new listening situation, as the soundscape unfolds they utilize associations and familiarity in order to place individual sounds into increasingly coherent narratives. Finally, we suggest that this approach could provide sound designers and human–computer interaction specialists with a model for investigating the context aspects of a soundscape more holistically, allowing them to evaluate the effect of any new designed sounds prior to introduction into real-world environments

Understanding Aural Fluency in Auditory Display Design for Ambient Intelligent Environments

Presented at the 14th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2008) on June 24-27, 2008 in Paris, France.This paper presents the design and some evaluation results from the auditory display model of an ambient intelligent game named socio-ec(h)o. socio-ec(h)o is played physically by a team of four, and displays information via a responsive environment of light and sound. Based on a study of 56 participants involving both qualitative and preliminary quantitative analysis, we present our findings to date as they relate to the auditory display model, future directions and implications. Based on our design and evaluation experience we begin building a theoretical understanding for the unique requirements of informative sonic displays in ambient intelligent and ubiquitous computing systems. We develop and discuss the emerging research concept of aural fluency in ambient intelligent settings

Making sense of group interaction in an ambient intelligent environment for physical play

This paper presents the results of a study on group interaction with a prototype known as socio-ec(h)o. socioec(h)o explores the design of sensing and display, user modeling, and interaction in an embedded interaction system utilizing a game structure. Our study involved the playing of our prototype system by thirty-six (36) participants grouped into teams of four (4). Our aim was to determine heuristics that we could use to further design the interaction and user model approaches for group and embodied interaction systems. We analyzed group interaction and performance based on factors of team cohesion and goal focus. We found that with our system, these factors alone could not explain performance. However, when transitions in the degrees of each factor, i.e. high, medium or low are considered, a clearer picture for performance emerges. The significance of the results is that they describe recognizable factors for positive group interaction