Communicating spatial information via a multimedia-auditory interface

This paper describes experiments in auditory information processing. These experiments investigated the possibility of utilising structured auditory stimuli (environmental and musical) to communicate information about the layout of a building. For example, auditory stimuli communicated the number of levels (or floors), location of rooms, hallways, sections and types of access (windows or doors). The results of our investigation suggest that it is possible to communicate building layout using auditory stimuli. These findings have particular implications for visually impaired users and for user interfaces or multimedia systems, which need to rely on auditory stimuli as an output mode. There is evidence to suggest that the use of environmental sounds or auditory icons are particularly effective. The importance of considering the characteristics of the problem domain and their relations to each other as well as the allocation of suitable media appear to aid consistency in a multimedia-auditory design. The issues of structure, classification and presentation are also underlined as part of the design process.