Sonification

What is sonification?

Sonification is defined as the use of non-speech audio to deliver information or present data. Auditory perception (hearing) has many possibilities as an alternative or complement to visualization.^.2

In 2011, Penn State Professor Mark Bellora described sonification in his presentation “Opening Your Ears to Data” at TEDxPSU. He demonstrated a number of data sets as sounds, including tide levels, water temperatures and weather information.

In one example, he converted wind data into sound, with pitch representing wind speed, sharpness/dullness of attack indicating gusts, and stereo panning reflecting direction. ³

Figure 3. Mark Bellora speaking at TEDxPSU on sonification. (Click to play video.)

Woon Seung Yao, Assistant Professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), is exploring the use of sonification in the medical field. By generating sounds based on imaging data, his goal is to help doctors identify cancer faster. ⁴

In Switzerland, Dr. Michael Falkner has invented a device that records fetal and maternal heart rates and converts them into music. He has tuned the heart rate of the  mother (about 70 bpm) into the sounds of a cello and a piano and the heart rate of the unborn baby (about 140 bpm) into the sounds of a flute. ⁵