Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of Sonification Tools for Point-and-Surface-Based Data Exploration

Abstract

Most existing visualization tools utilize only the visual channel to represent information. Several studies have demonstrated that sonification,the use of sound as an alternative or additional channel for data representation, can help increase the dimensionality of the visual representation and aid in the interpretation of information. We introduce a new sonification module for a visual data exploration system, the Super Spider. It extends a previously developed interactive visualization tool \cite{minghim05spider} to support data exploration using sound. We also introduce a new data sonification technique and system, 2D Sonar. We have integrated it into Super Spider. Finally, we present user studies conducted to evaluate and validate the efficacy of visual and auditory mappings devised for these tools, and their results.