Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!mcsun!ukc!yorkohm!minster!alistair
From: alistair@minster.york.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: Audio feedback from GUI's
Message-ID: <677335592.6205@minster.york.ac.uk>
Date: 19 Jun 91 12:46:33 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of York, England
Lines: 40

I have only just come across this newsgroup and this discussion - in 
fact I seem to have missed the beginning of it. The topic is of great 
interest because it is the focus of the work of several people here. 
I am particularly interested in the use of sound to make GUIs 
accessible to blind people (an obvious case where sounds do have a 
certain advantage over visual communication). 

I have archived the discussion and no doubt wil have LOTS to add to 
it, when I've read it all, but for the moment, let me respond to the 
'Sounds are no use because they are just annoying. I need to work in 
a quiet office' argument. Sit back. What can you hear - nothing? I 
doubt it. Let me describe my current soundscape.

The fan on the back of my Sun is whirring. There goes a car on the 
road outside, and from the hissing sound I know the road is wet. 
There are voices in the next office. I can't hear what they are 
saying, but I know Paul and Susan are there. There goes a bus. Oh 
yes, my Mac's on too, I can just hear it's fan. Somebody's started 
printing something on the laser printer next door - oops, it's jammed.

And am I going crazy with all this noise? In fact simple experiments 
have shown that peopl do go crazy if placed in anechoic chambers for 
too long. My point is that sounds need not necessarily be annoying, 
even though most of the ones currently generated by computers are. 
It just depends on what the sounds are. One of our objectives is to
find out what kinds of sounds we should be using. Furthermore, sounds can 
convey a lot of information even when we are not concentrating on 
them. I often do not notice there is anything printing on the 
laserwriter, until it jams.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Alistair Edwards
Lecturer in Computer Science
University of York, York, England YO1 5DD

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