Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!att!cbnewsl!spf
From: spf@cbnewsl.att.com (Steve Frysinger of Blue Feather Farm)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: Audio feedback from GUI's
Message-ID: <1991Jun13.220557.3075@cbnewsl.att.com>
Date: 13 Jun 91 22:05:57 GMT
References: <1991Jun13.165447.13058@fwi.uva.nl>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 60


 haltraet@gondle.idt.unit.no (Hallvard Traetteberg) writes:
>  2.Sound (as opposed to speach) is *not* useful for communicating
>    information.

Wow.  This is a pretty strong statement.  Do you have evidence?

You see, I've spent about 10 years quantifying the ADVANTAGES of sound
for pattern recognition in multivariate time series, and I know of
several other investigators doing similar work for other types of
quantitative exploratory data analysis.

To put it simply, the experimental evidence in the literature contradicts
your assertion rather embarrassingly.  I've included a brief bibliography
below, but there are others I know of not represented here.

Good science puts inquiry ahead of speculation.

Steve Frysinger
                                      References

          Bly, S., Frysinger, S. P., Lunney, D., Mansur, D. L., Mezrich, J.
             J., Morrison, R.C. (1985).  Panel: Communicating with Sound.  In
             L. Borman and W. Curtis (Ed.), Human Factors in Computing
             Systems - Proceedings of CHI'85 (pp. 115-119).  New York, New
             York: Association of Computing Machinery.
          Bly, S., Frysinger, S. P., Lunney, D., Mansur, D. L., Mezrich, J.
             J., Morrison, R.C. (1987).  Communication with Sound.  In R.
             Baecker & W. A. S. Buxton (Eds.), Readings in Human-Computer
             Interaction: A Multidisciplinary Approach (pp. 420-424).  Los
             Altos: Morgan Kaufmann.
          Bly, S. (1982).  Sound and Computer Information Presentation.
             Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California,
             Davis.
          Chambers, J. M., Mathews, M. V., & Moore, F. R. (1974).  Auditory
             Data Inspection (Technical Memorandum 74-1214-20).  Murray Hill,
             NJ: AT&T Bell Laboratories.
          Frysinger, S.P. (1988).  Pattern Recognition in Auditory Data
             Representation.  Unpublished thesis, Stevens Institute of
             Technology.
          Frysinger, S.P. (1990).  Applied Research in Auditory Data
             Representation.  In E. J. Farrell (Chair), Extracting Meaning
             From Complex Data - Proceedings of the SPIE/SPSE Symposium on
             Electronic Imaging".
          Gaver, W. W. (1986).  Auditory Icons: Using Sound in Computer
             Interfaces.  Human-Computer Interaction, 2, 167-177.
          Mansur, D. L. (1984).  Graphs in Sound: A Numerical Data Analysis
             Method for the Blind.  Unpublished master's thesis, University
             of California, Davis.
          Mezrich, J. J., Frysinger, S. P., & Slivjanovski, R. (1984).
             Dynamic Representation of Multivariate Time-series Data.
             Journal of the American Statistical Association, 79, 34-40.
          Pollack, I. & Ficks, L. (1954).  Information of Elementary
             Multidimensional Auditory Displays.  Journal of the Acoustical
             Society of America, 26, 155-158.
          Speeth, S. D. (1961).  Seismometer Sounds.  Journal of the
             Acoustical Society of America, 33, 909-916.
          Yeung, E. S. (1980).  Pattern Recognition by Audio Representation
             of Multivariate Analytical Data.  Analytical Chemistry, 52,
             1120-1123.