The audio game laboratory: Building maps from games

Audio games demonstrate an emergence of interactive parameter mapping sonifications that potentially optimally display geographical information and a large number of simultaneous data variables. Our preliminary investigation of audio games is in response to a call for more research on parameter mapping sonifications, such as the best way of presenting auditory legends for representations, effectiveness of spatial audio, map comprehension techniques, and finding optimal sonic variable mappings. We also present a proposed set of auditory map interfaces observed in audio games. Commercially available interactive interfaces and audio games – that have been shaped and informally “tested” by the selection pressures of a demanding consumer market – can serve as examples of potentially effective conventions informing future work in the auditory display research community

Mapping Audio and Tactile Variables: A concatenated study to find inclusive correspondences for visual variables in geographic maps

The purpose of this research was to understand current geographic mapping paradigms, expose barriers faced by people who cannot rely on visual perception in the map reading experience, and propose a framework for designing maps to address these barriers. The study involved literature review, environmental scan, semi-structured interviews, surveys, and co-design with a variety of stakeholders. At each stage of the research auditory and tactile correlates for the visual variables used in geographic maps were documented and the results were synthesized into a framework referred to here as the VATmap (visual, audio, tactile) model. The framework can be used as a reference for designers and educators by suggesting strategies for communicating geographic information beyond visual display through a combination of visual, audio, and tactile map representations