Sounding Object Project
The SOb project is part of the Disappearing Computer proactive initiative of the IST Future and Emerging Technologies.
The SOb project aims at developing sound models that are responsive to physical interactions and are easily matched to physical objects. The sound models, being specified by pysical descriptions and actions, will be ready to be integrated into artefacts that interact with each other and that accessed by direct manipulation. Control models are developed in order to reproduce parametric variations that are natural according to the dynamics of human gestures and expressive intentions. Sound and control models are developed after the phenomenological and psychophysical characterisation of a restricted class of sound events. The results of research are demonstrated by means of a dynamic sound library and an application that will allow users to interact with objects using only gestures and auditory display.
The project is innovative in several ways:
- It takes a physics-based approach to sound modelling, as opposed to signal based approaches that are more conventional in sonification, auditory display and multimedia;
- It brings together researchers from diverse fields, such as experimental psychology, signal processing, human-computer interaction and acoustics;
- It aims at developing models and algorithms that have a solid physical basis while being accessible in a human-oriented fashion;
- It aims at developing a phenomenology and a psychophysics of sound events that are relevant for interaction with and among artefacts;
- A continuous evaluation process of sound and control models is run throughout the project using the methods of experimental psychology.
(source: soundobject.org)