EXPLORING AUDITORY FEEDBACK

Auditory feedback has been extensively used to convey information in computer applications. For example Buxton in Speech, language and audition sited in Human Computer Interaction: Toward the Year2000; here he categorized non-speech audio messages into something like encoded messages and data, alarms and warning systems and status and monitoring indicators. The messages can be converted using either abstract synthetic sounds called earcons or naturally occurring sounds that may be related to an action or event called auditory icons.

Also in Brewster’s paper he compared users ability to recall information about icons and menu items with the help of earcons. He carried out an evaluation of earcons to see whether they are an effective means of communicating information in sound.

Initially I found information regarding earcons and auditory icon difficult to follow and had little understanding on how it links to my present study. I never heard the word ‘earcons’ and ‘auditory icon’ until I began reading Prof. Stephen Brewster’s website and materials.

After several reads I am now able to see how it links to my study in auditory/sound. Most of the references that I’ve been thorough focused on the specifics of sound design and codification. My study is not concerned with these specifics.

The aim of my research is to understand / investigate and inform the impact / effects auditory feedback has on children’s performance on task in an interactive tabletop and whether sound serves as an important role in Interactive tabletops?

My study differs from previous studies that investigated audio in that it is not focused on an individual application but rather it is intended to understand and inform the effects auditory feedback have on children performing any task in any touchable interfaces that uses auditory feedback.

I have also been doing some research into the kinds of auditory feedback of some systems. My study wishes to support the kinds of auditory feedback suggested by these systems below.

1. ShrEdt – a collaborative writing tool, handles cursor collisions; when a user tries to edit a document in the same place as another. Found in Dourish, P. and Bellotti, V. Awareness and coordination in shared workspaces. In Proc. CSCW 1992. ACM Press, 107 – 144

2. AROMA – an application that presents and abstraction of data captured to displays auditory cues about the remote presence of individuals in a distributed group Found in Pedersone, E.R. and Sokoler, T. AROMA: Abstract representation of presence supporting mutual awareness. In Proc. CHI 1997. ACM Press, 51-59

3. ARKola simulation – This application uses auditory icons to support awareness in a distributed collaborative bottling plant management application. Found in Gaver, W.W., Smith, R. B., and O’Shea, T. Effective sounds in complex systems: the ARKola simulation. In Proc. CHI 1991. ACM Press, 85 – 90

4. Aura – Provides for awareness of remote presence by providing “serendipitous information, via background audio cues, that is tied to people’s physical actions in the workplace”. Found in Mynatt, E. D., Back, M., Want, R., Baer, M. and Ellis, J. B. Designing audio aura. In Proc. CHI 1998. ACM Press/Addison – Wesley Publishing Co., 566 - 573

Audio feedback falls into three categories. These are: -

· Proactive

· Reactive [affirmative; negative]

· Ambient.

My study falls into category reactive auditory feedback meaning feedback provided to the user after (or as) the user performs an action. This type of feedback can be further classified as: -

- Affirmative – Affirmative reactions confirm the actions of the user (e.g. plays sound when correct)

- Negative – negative reactions indicate errors (e.g. highlights red when selected)

I have been reading, Finger talk: collaborative decision-making using talk and fingertip interaction around a tabletop display. Rogers, Y., Hazlewood, W., Blevis, E., and Lim, Y.-K. In Proc. CHI 2004: Extended abstracts. ACM Press, 1271 - 1274

I found this article very interesting and useful.