Iain McGregor

Edinburgh Napier University · School of Computing

Sound has been theorised for its functional role as informative agent in political advocacy and participation in political studies, yet the investigation on the pedagogical potential has been largely absent. This paper examines the pedagogical impact and educational affordances of sound through a case study of the political struggles in post-coloni...

Sound has arguably been a key component in almost every video game since their first inception, and whilst it is rarely the reason to choose a particular title, it can have an impact upon the level of engagement. Whilst some gamers choose to mute audio and provide their own musical selection, others utilize complex audio cues to improve their gamep...

Foley artistry is an essential part of the audio post-production process for film, television, games, and animation. By extension, it is as crucial in emergent media such as virtual, mixed, and augmented reality. Footsteps are a core activity that a Foley artist must undertake and convey information about the characters and environment presented on...

This study investigated the design and evaluation of a sonification, created for an astronomer who studies exosolar accretion discs. User design methods were applied to sonify data that could allow the classification of accretion discs. The sonification was developed over three stages: a requirements gathering exercise that inquired about the astro...

The present research evaluates the effectiveness of CymaSense, a real-time 3D visualisation application developed by the authors, as a means of improving the communicative behaviours of autistic participants through the addition of a visual modality within therapeutic music sessions. Autism spectrum condition (ASC) is a lifelong neurodevelopmental...

Auditory alerts are an essential part of many multi-modal interaction scenarios, particularly in safety and mission critical settings, such as hospitals and transportation. A variety of strategies can be employed in the design of auditory alerts, often orienting manipulation of volume and pitch parameters. However, manipulations by applying a Doppl...

This study investigates the effectiveness of user design methods to create a sonification for an astronomer who analyses exoplanet meteorological data situated in habitable zones. Requirements about the astronomer's work, the dataset and how to sonify it utilising Grounded Theory were identified. Parameter mapping sonification was used to represent...

With an increasing number of everyday operations and communications becoming both automated and autonomous, ambient intelligent soundscapes are transforming to accommodate additional sonic feedback, and with it, new frameworks of listening. While this type of research and design of audio augmented technology is not new, the impact pre-existing acou...

Audio data compression has revolutionised the way in which the music industry and musicians sell and distribute their products. Our previous research presented a novel codec named ACER (Audio Compression Exploiting Repetition), which achieves data reduction by exploiting irrelevancy and redundancy in musical structure whilst generally maintaining a...

This study aims to provide an insight into effective sonification design. There are currently no standardized design methods, allowing a creative development approach. Sonifcation has been implemented in many different applications from scientific data representation to novel styles of musical expression. This means that methods of practice can var...

This book explores the underlying principles of sound design for linear and interactive media, and specifically how they apply to theatre. The focus of the text is about how to design effective sound so that audiences' experiences are as close as possible to designers' intentions. Sound is omnipresent, it surrounds us and immerses us in the world....

This paper explores the use of head-mounted displays (HMDs) as a way to deliver a front row experience to any audience member during a live event. To do so, it presents a two-part user study that compares participants reported sense of presence across three experimental conditions: front row, back row, and back row with HMD (displaying 360° video c...

Music Therapy has been shown to be an effective intervention for clients with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC), a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition that can affect people in a number of ways. This paper presents a study evaluating the use of a multimodal 3D interactive tool, CymaSense, within a series of music therapy sessions. Eight adults with...

What does music look like? Representation of music has taken many forms over time, from musical notation [16], through to random algorithm-based visualisations based on the amplitude of an audio signal [19]. One aspect of music visualisation that has not been widely explored is that of Cymatics. Cymatics are physical impressions of music created in...

Sound is potentially an effective way of analysing data and it is possible to simultaneously interpret layers of sounds and identify changes. Multiple attempts to use sound with scientific data have been made, with varying levels of success. On many occasions this was done without including the end user during the development. In this study a sonif...

Sound is potentially an effective way of analysing data and it is possible to simultaneously interpret layers of sounds and identify changes. Multiple attempts to use sound with scientific data have been made, with varying levels of success. On many occasions this was done without including the end user during the development. In this study a sonif...

The testing of sound designs often involves only expert evaluations. Training is commonly required when non-experts participate, which can alter the listening experience. This paper presents a method of evaluating sound designs for radio and audio logos that avoids listener training. Sound designs incorporating sound effects, music or dialogue can...

This study aims to investigate the effects of term-time paid work on undergraduate students’ studies and what can be done to minimise any negative effects. Two studies were conducted; the first to establish the extent of students taking on paid work during term time, the impact it had on their studies and how they would like to be academically supp...

This is an introductory study of the Maltese Soundscape and is part of an even bigger project. It introduces a soundscape diced with traditional sounds which still echo in the present and mutate and conflict with the modern sounds that are becoming part of the Maltese Sound field. This paper shows the study that has taken place, the results that ha...

The process of designing and testing auditory displays often includes evaluations only by experts, and where non-experts are involved, training is commonly required. This paper presents a method of evaluating sound designs that does not require listener training, thus promoting more ecological practices in auditory display design. Complex sound des...

The auralization room was designed as a joint project between School of Engineering and Built Environment and the School of Computing of Edinburgh Napier University. The interior acoustic design specialists conducted the acoustic design of the auralization room, whilst the expert in computing provided the electronic systems. The room is planned to...

There are numerous rules and well-established guidelines to help designers with the visual appearance of interactive technologies. In contrast, when it comes to the use of sound, there is a paucity of practical information regarding design for euphony, excepting musical composition. This paper addresses this hiatus by describing a theoretically bas...

This paper compares the listening experiences of non-experts and the designers of two sound designs. To date, no such comparisons have been examined empirically, and so for ease of comparison, repertory grids were chosen to explore these experiences, which preclude the need for listener training. The results suggest that (a) it is meaningful to com...

This paper reports on establishing whether listeners have the same listening experience as the person who designed the sound. Surprisingly, there is little or no evidence as to whether what is designed to be heard is what is actually heard. The study reported here is a qualitative study into these two experiences. Research approach -- A repertory g...

In order to design auditory displays that function well within the cultural, informational and acoustic ecology of everyday situations designers as well as researchers in psychoacoustics need to continue to gain a better understanding of how listeners hear and make sense of information in more ecological settings and outside the lab! In this paper...

This paper illustrates a method for the early evaluation of auditory displays in context. A designer was questioned about his expectations of an auditory display for Heavy Goods Vehicles, and the results were compared to the experiences of 10 listeners. Sound design is essentially an isolated practice and by involving listeners the process can beco...

The perceived auditory environment is an increasingly important part of people’s everyday interactive experiences. While sound design is an established discipline in media such as video games and cinema, this is not the case in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). HCI designers are rarely trained in sound design, and may not make the most effective us...

This paper describes a soundscape mapping tool, and provides an illustration of its use in the evaluation of an in-car auditory interface. The tool addresses three areas: communicating what people are listening to, showing how soundscapes can be visualized, and demonstrating how the approach can be used by a designer during the evaluation of an aud...

This chapter considers the role of sound, and more specifically, listening, in creating a sense of presence (of ‘being there’) in ‘places’ recreated by virtual reality technologies. We first briefly review the treatment of sound in place and presence research. Here we give particular attention to the role of sound in inducing a sense of presence in...

The introduction of effective auditory warnings into a shared environment requires a prior understanding of the existing soundfield and soundscape. Reifying the physical and perceptual auditory environment enables a form of pre-auditioning, as well as the evaluation of any auditory augmentation. This paper describes the development of a visualisati...

This chapter considers the role of sound, and more specifically, listening, in creating a sense of presence (of "being there") in "places" recreated by virtual reality technologies. We first briefly review the treatment of sound in place and presence research. Here we give particular attention to the role of sound in inducing a sense of presence in...

The use of sound to create or enhance the sense of presence is well recognized and the measurements of which have focused on hearing, e.g. "were you able to identify a particular sound?", "how well could you localize the sounds". To this treatment of audition we now add, listening. Listening is active, directed, intentional hearing. This aspect of...

Ensemble - an interactive collection of networked jewellery with gesturally determined, real time sonic output

This paper presents a unique insight into the way acousticians, computing specialists and sound designers describe the dimensions of sound they use. Seventy-five audio professionals completed a detailed questionnaire created to elicit common definitions of the words noise and soundscape, and to establish common methods of reifying sound, architectu...

This paper presents a unique insight into the way acousticians, computing specialists and sound designers describe the dimensions of sound they use. Seventy-five audio professionals completed a detailed questionnaire created to elicit common definitions of the words noise and soundscape, and to establish common methods of reifying sound, architectu...

This paper investigates soundscape classification by using two different forms of data gathering and two different populations. The first method involves a questionnaire completed by 75 audio professionals. The second uses a speak-aloud experiment, during which 40 end users were asked to describe their audio environment. While both approaches are d...

This paper describes a trial of Macaulay and Crerar's method of mapping a workplace soundscape to assess its fitness as a basis for an extended soundscape mapping method. Twelve participants took part within 14 separate environments, which included academic, commercial and domestic locations. Results were visualized and subsequently collapsed to pr...

This paper reports an empirical study to investigate how individuals perceive and classify elements of their workplace auditory environments. The participants were 18 university employees chosen for their varying degrees of room occupancy, from single occupants through to those sharing with up to 11 colleagues. Participants in single rooms were exp...

This paper discusses the importance of auditory interface aesthetics and presents an empirical investigation of sound aesthetics in context. The theoretical discussion examines the relationship between sound aesthetics and user satisfaction and concludes that, despite the creation of numerous auditory design methods and guidelines, none are dedicat...

This paper presents an investigation into how sound can be used to create a sense of place (that is, the sense of being in that particular place). In the study, people were asked to speak aloud and tell us what they could hear. The analysis of these concurrent verbalizations is a particular focus of this work. We also demonstrate the usefulness of...

We report an empirical study into the creation of, and response to, a soundscape of a computer centre. We contrast the use of presence questionnaires, as means of assessing the sense of being-there, against a more phenomenological approach. We conclude that we have been able to create a strong sense of place but uncovered a number of experimental /...

This paper reports progress towards mapping workplace soundscapes. In order to design auditory interfaces that integrate effectively with workplace environments, we need a detailed understanding of the way in which end users inhabit these environments, and in particular, how they interact with the existing auditory environment. Our work concentrate...

The increased take-up of Interactive Television, 3G and broadband networks is effecting a growth in the use of interactive, timeline-based media. This paper will describe how to facilitate the design of linear narrative systems utilising the extensibility features of the unified modelling language (UML). The UML provides a solution to model the int...