Preponderant visual interface use for conveying information from machine to human admits failures due to overwhelming the visual channel. This thesis investigates the suitability of auditory feedback and certain related design choices in settings involving background speech. Communicating a tele-operated vehicle’s tilt angle was the focal application. A simulator experiment with pitch feedback on one system variable, tilt angle, and its safety threshold was conducted. Manipulated in a within-subject design were: (1) presence vs. absence of speech, (2) discrete tilt alarm vs. discrete alarm and tilt sonification (continuous feedback), (3) tilt sonification vs. tilt and threshold sonification, and (4) linear vs. quadratic transfer function of variable to pitch. Designs with both variable and reference sonification were found to significantly reduce the time drivers spent exceeding the safety limit compared to the designs with no sonification, though this effect was not detected within the set of conditions with background speech audio.

Preponderant visual interface use for conveying information from machine to human admits failures due to overwhelming the visual channel. This thesis investigates the suitability of auditory feedback and certain related design choices in settings involving background speech. Communicating a tele-operated vehicle’s tilt angle was the focal application. A simulator experiment with pitch feedback on one system variable, tilt angle, and its safety threshold was conducted. Manipulated in a within-subject design were: (1) presence vs. absence of speech, (2) discrete tilt alarm vs. discrete alarm and tilt sonification (continuous feedback), (3) tilt sonification vs. tilt and threshold sonification, and (4) linear vs. quadratic transfer function of variable to pitch. Designs with both variable and reference sonification were found to significantly reduce the time drivers spent exceeding the safety limit compared to the designs with no sonification, though this effect was not detected within the set of conditions with background speech audio.

The prospect of computer applications making "noises" is disconcerting to some. Yet the soundscape of the real world does not usually bother us. Perhaps we only notice a nuisance? This thesis is an approach for designing sounds that are useful information rather than distracting "noise". The approach is called TaDa because the sounds are designed to be useful in a Task and true to the Data. ¶ Previous researchers in auditory display have identified issues that need to be addressed for the field to progress. The TaDa approach is an integrated approach that addresses an array of these issues through a multifaceted system of methods drawn from HCI, visualisation, graphic design and sound design. A task-analysis addresses the issue of usefulness. A data characterisation addresses perceptual faithfulness. A case-based method provides semantic linkage to the application domain. A rule-based method addresses psychoacoustic control. A perceptually linearised sound space allows transportable auditory specifications. Most of these methods have not been used to design auditory displays before, and each has been specially adapted for this design domain. ¶ The TaDa methods have been built into computer-aided design tools that can assist the design of a more effective display, and may allow less than experienced designers to make effective use of sounds. The case-based method is supported by a database of examples that can be searched by an information analysis of the design scenario. The rule-based method is supported by a direct manipulation interface which shows the available sound gamut of an audio device as a 3D coloured object that can be sliced and picked with the mouse. These computer-aided tools are the first of their kind to be developed in auditory display. ¶ The approach, methods and tools are demonstrated in scenarios from the domains of mining exploration, resource monitoring and climatology. These practical applications show that sounds can be useful in a wide variety of information processing activities which have not been explored before. The sounds provide information that is difficult to obtain visually, and improve the directness of interactions by providing additional affordances.

Sonification allows for the analysis and interpretation of data through its rendering into sound. It is a method that remains largely unexplored from a digital humanities perspective. The present thesis addresses this research gap by exploring aspects of sonification as a mode of data perceptualization. Methodologically, it combines an extensive review of sonification literature with the design of a sonification prototype. The prototype is created using an exploratory programming approach and is evaluated through a small user study. One of the main challenges of using sonification within the humanities consists in aligning it with humanistic interpretative and critical modes of inquiry, in the thesis understood through the framework of Johanna Drucker’s critical hermeneutics. Another challenge is related to the shortage of existing projects and previous research, and also to a lack of relatively easy-to-use sonification tools. In the thesis, these challenges are primarily made visible through the process of prototype design and through the subsequent user study. Nevertheless, the literature review successfully uncovers a number of potential strategies for the realization of humanistic-interpretative sonification design, focusing especially on the concepts of phenomenology of listening and musical sonification. By applying musical sonification, it becomes possible to move beyond the simple representation of data, allowing instead for interpretative approaches. The findings presented in the thesis provide foundations for future research into humanities sonification.