Sonic Interaction Design

Sound is an integral part of every user experience but a neglected medium in design disciplines. Design of an artifact’s sonic qualities is often limited to the shaping of functional, representational, and signaling roles of sound. The interdisciplinary field of sonic interaction design (SID) challenges these prevalent approaches by considering sound as an active medium that can enable novel sensory and social experiences through interactive technologies. This book offers an overview of the emerging SID research, discussing theories, methods, and practices, with a focus on the multisensory aspects of sonic experience. Sonic Interaction Design gathers contributions from scholars, artists, and designers working at the intersections of fields ranging from electronic music to cognitive science. They offer both theoretical considerations of key themes and case studies of products and systems created for such contexts as mobile music, sensorimotor learning, rehabilitation, and gaming. The goal is not only to extend the existing research and pedagogical approaches to SID but also to foster domains of practice for sound designers, architects, interaction designers, media artists, product designers, and urban planners. Taken together, the chapters provide a foundation for a still-emerging field, affording a new generation of designers a fresh perspective on interactive sound as a situated and multisensory experience.

Contributors: Federico Avanzini, Gerold Baier, Stephen Barrass, Olivier Bau, Karin Bijsterveld, Roberto Bresin, Stephen Brewster, Jeremy Coopersotck, Amalia De Gotzen, Stefano Delle Monache, Cumhur Erkut, George Essl, Karmen Franinović, Bruno L. Giordano, Antti Jylhä, Thomas Hermann, Daniel Hug, Johan Kildal, Stefan Krebs, Anatole Lecuyer, Wendy Mackay, David Merrill, Roderick Murray-Smith, Sile O’Modhrain, Pietro Polotti, Hayes Raffle, Michal Rinott, Davide Rocchesso, Antonio Rodà, Christopher Salter, Zack Settel, Stefania Serafin, Simone Spagnol, Jean Sreng, Patrick Susini, Atau Tanaka, Yon Visell, Mike Wezniewski, John Williamson

Table of Contents

I Emergent Topics 1
1 Listening to the Sounding Objects of the Past: The Case of the Car 3
2 The Experience of Sonic Interaction 39
3 Continuous Auditory and Tactile Interaction Design 77
4 Pedagogical Approaches and Methods 125
5 Perceptual Evaluation of Sound-Producing Objects 151
II Case Studies 199
Audio and Touch 201
6 Perceptual Integration of Audio and Touch: A Case Study of PebbleBox 2
7 Semiacoustic Sound Exploration with the Sound of Touch 213
8 The Gamelunch: Basic SID Exploration of a Dining Scenario 225
9 ZiZi: The Affectionate Couch and the Interactive Affect Design Diagram 235
10 SonicTexting 245
11 The A20: Interactive Instrument Techniques for Sonic Design Exploration 255
Sonification of Human Activities 271
12 Designing Interactive Sound for Motor Rehabilitation Tasks 273
13 Sonification of the Human EEG 285
14 High-Density Sonification: Overview Information in Auditory Data
Explorations 299
Sound in Virtual Reality 307
15 Simulating Contacts between Objects in Virtual Reality with Auditory, Visual, and Haptic Feedback 309
16 Sonic Interaction via Spatial Arrangement in Mixed-Reality Environments 329
17 Heigh Ho: Rhythmicity in Sonic Interaction 341
18 Barking Wallets and Poetic Flasks: Exploring Sound Design for Interactive Commodities 351