Chapter 11

Nonspeech Auditory Output

Stephen Brewster
University of Glasgow

 

Outline

Introduction and a Brief History of Nonspeech Sound and Human–Computer Interaction

Why Use Nonspeech Sound in Human-Computer Interfaces?

Some Advantages Offered by Sound

Some Problems With Nonspeech Sound

Comparing Speech and Nonspeech Sounds for Interface Design

Avoiding Annoyance

Perception of Sound

Technology and Sound Production

A Brief Introduction to Sound Synthesis and MIDI

A Brief Introduction to Sampling

Sample Rate

Comparing MIDI Synthesis to Sampling for Auditory Interface Design

Three-Dimensional (3D)Sound

Nonspeech Sound Presentation Techniques

Auditory Icons

Earcons

Comparing Auditory Icons and Earcons

The Applications of Auditory Output

Sonic Enhancement and Graphic Replacement in Graphical User Interfaces

Sound for Users With Visual Impairments

Sound for Wearable and Mobile Computers

Conclusions

References

 

Figures

Figure 11.1: A sine wave.

Figure 11.2: A complex wave made up of three components with its fundamental at 100 Hz.

Figure 11.3: An interaction showing the deletion of a folder in the SonicFinder (from Gaver,1989).

Figure 11.4: Compound earcons: A shows the four audio elements create ,destroy ,?le ,and string .B shows the compound earcons create file and destroy string (Blattner et al.,1989).

Figure 11.5: A hierarchy of earcons representing errors (from Blattner et al.,1989).

Figure 11.6: The presentation continuum of auditory icons and earcons.

Figure 11.7: The visual feedback presented by a graphical button when selected. Figure 1 shows acorrect selection and 2 shows a slip-off (from Brewster,1998a).

Figure 11.8: Soundtrack’s main screen (from Edwards,1989)

Figure 11.9: The musical description of graphic shapes from Rigas and Alty (1997).

Figure 11.10: Screenshot of the 3Com Palm III interface used by Brewster (2002).