Recognizing Shapes and Gestures Using Sound as Feedback
Comments:
Shena Hoffmann
Cindy Skach
Reference:
Sanchez, Javier. Recognizing Shapes and Gestures Using Sound as Feedback. CHI EA '10. Stanford.
Summary:
Sanchez develops a system that studies the use of sound to recognize shapes capturing the gestures from the user. Seeing that sound is used in many aspects of life, it has now been transfered to computer devices. Popularized by the Geiger counter, the use of sound to model aspects of our lives has produced the pulseoximeter, vehicle back-up alerts and more.
In this study, the user would use a pointing device to move around (on a screen they could not see). As the user approached a shape that was on the screen, using sound duration, rhythm, timbre and panoramization. The system could contain different sounds based upon shape, slope of a line, and proximity of the mouse to a line. The user was able to get immediate feedback in order to compensate their pointing device movements.Discussion:
This study is interesting to me not because of the design of the simulation or the way they went about orchestrating the system, but rather on the implications that systems like this have on other realms of technology. We have seen some progression in the use of sound to inform us of different aspects of a car such as an alarm or back-up warning system. In my experience the back-up warning system is heavily flawed. Hopefully papers such as this inspire others to take ideas like this more seriously in order to develop better technology.
Future research could be different areas in which sound would be useful. Much brainstorming could produce a set of activities to experiment with.
The topic presented did not show much in the way of what they found concerning the user. Sanchez explains the software very well, but does not qualify the user's experience.
I'll be honest, that sounds a bit odd to me. It should be interesting to see if that catches on, but I'm not buying it. I'm sure people can correlate sounds to shapes and whatnot, but I'm not seeing how that will have long term benefits.
ReplyDeleteI think using sound to provide feedback to the user in a system could be extremely helpful. I think humans react well to audio signals and I agree back research in this area would be good.
ReplyDeleteI agree that audio feedback could be helpful. To relate this to one of the capstone projects, the soldier navigation could use something similar to this in the field. I am not sure what you mean though Evin about the back-up warning system. I have never used anything like that, what problems did you have?
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