ABSTRACT
Sonification is the use of nonspeech audio to present data. Sonification is typically used in situations where the user’s eyes are busy elsewhere, such as in a laboratory or production line; where extracting temporal information is important; or where the data presentation requirements exceed the bandwidth of visual presentation means. The most successful example of an eyes-busy sonification application is the Geiger counter, wherein radiation measurements are presented to the user in the form of a clicking sound, with more clicks representing higher radiation levels. The auditory thermometer, where a changing pitch is used to display temperature, is a good example of a simple sonification. Complex monitoring tasks, such as those found in surgery, for example the pulse oximeter, are other venues for sonification. Analysis of multivariate scientific data is another active area of sonification research which has begun to show some promising results (Kramer 1994).
