ICAD-01, Espoo, Finland, July 29 - August 1, 2001 Sonic Browsing: An Auditory Tool For Multimedia Asset Management Mikael Fernström & Eoin Brazil Interaction Design Centre University of Limerick, IRELAND

ICAD-01, Espoo, Finland, July 29 - August 1, 2001 Outline Introduction, Multimedia Asset Management Applications Sonic Browser Study results Conclusion

ICAD-01, Espoo, Finland, July 29 - August 1, 2001 Introduction how sound can be used to assist users working with complex data sets. Searching and Browsing datasets of everyday sounds Visual & Aural representation Direct Sonification

ICAD-01, Espoo, Finland, July 29 - August 1, 2001 Intro: Multimedia Asset Management Multimedia Designers Large sets of everyday sounds used as datasets Idea -> use “cocktail party effect” to exploit ability to switch between sounds in auditory scene

ICAD-01, Espoo, Finland, July 29 - August 1, 2001 Applications Collection of everyday sounds, multimedia authoring Copyright Issues Use by Multimedia Designers...

ICAD-01, Espoo, Finland, July 29 - August 1, 2001 Sonic Browser - Concepts Screenscape and Soundscape Visual, star-field type display –shape, colour, size, and location Audio, direct music representation –drivers that support multiple stream audio Tight Coupling –Objects under the Aura are high-lighted and played simultaneously

ICAD-01, Espoo, Finland, July 29 - August 1, 2001 Sonic Browser - Visual Visual Representation: Star-field representation of auditory objects Arbitrary mapping, controlled by the user – shape, colour, size, horizontal and vertical location Tunes playing are high-lighted.

ICAD-01, Espoo, Finland, July 29 - August 1, 2001 Sonic Browser - Audio Audio: Direct representation of tunes (exploting the cocktailparty effect) Sounds are panned out in a stereo field controlled by the visual location of the tunes nearest to the cursor. The volume of the tunes playing concurrently is proportional to the visual distance between the objects and the cursor

ICAD-01, Espoo, Finland, July 29 - August 1, 2001 Sonic Browser – Screenshot

ICAD-01, Espoo, Finland, July 29 - August 1, 2001 Sonic Browser – Usage Cursor on object - the object plays, max volume, centered. Click - show dialogue box with details of the properties of the objects Double-click - access the object, e.g. show the details in the database, edit, etc. Single-click & Drag – move the object in display

ICAD-01, Espoo, Finland, July 29 - August 1, 2001 Study - Overview Design of interface elements and components of an interface when working with sound resources Examined differences in –Microsoft Windows™ Explorer –Sonic Browser

ICAD-01, Espoo, Finland, July 29 - August 1, 2001 Windows Explorer – Screenshot

ICAD-01, Espoo, Finland, July 29 - August 1, Users and Data set Postgraduates in the CSIS at UL Two commerical datasets –first set contained 54 sounds, used for familiarisation. –second set contained 244 sounds, used in the test phase

ICAD-01, Espoo, Finland, July 29 - August 1, 2001 Tasks Familiarisation –practice tasks Testing –similar way with a different sound data set and tasks Post testing debrief & questionnaire

ICAD-01, Espoo, Finland, July 29 - August 1, 2001 Overview of Sound Areas The various categories of sound are shown below

ICAD-01, Espoo, Finland, July 29 - August 1, 2001 Sound Datasets Everyday Sound Musical Sound Area of Interest Start of Song

ICAD-01, Espoo, Finland, July 29 - August 1, 2001 Study Findings Hierarchical Layout helped navigation Long file names for files versus using cryptic short file names were more useful Aura allowed panning across files quickly Windows Explorer only has the ability to play one sound at a time Categorization differs between users

ICAD-01, Espoo, Finland, July 29 - August 1, 2001 Conclusion Straight hierarchy view does improve performance but can lead to confusion Use long descriptive file names Categorization problems can be avoid by use of an aura Areas / Regions of interest may not always be at the start of a sound, use of Cue points

ICAD-01, Espoo, Finland, July 29 - August 1, 2001 Future Work & Reference Development of a zoom facility Addition of display by category Inclusion of “tagging” or “shading” for files of interest Use of cue points to play sound areas/regions of interest Use of three property sliders for filtering Website: