This paper introduces Mode Explorer. a novel interactive auditory data exploration method to investigate features of high-dimensional data distributions: scratching-interactions on a 2D scatter plot of high-dimensional data with a pencil induces real-time dynamical processes according to a particle sonification model, excited in data space at the nearest mode in the probability density function (pdf) obtained by Kernel Density Estimation. Specifically, the signimerted pdf is used as potential energy function in which test particles perform oscillations at low friction, yielding trajectories. and via their instantaneous kinetic energy signals that are directly played back as sound. This Model-based yonification approach enables an interactive search for different modes to investigate their details, e.g., comparing cluster mass. We present results of a user study which allows us to conclude that the Mode Explorer enhances users' ability to discriminate clusters and to compare their relative a-priori probabilities.

This paper presents a novel interactive auditory data exploration method to investigate features of high-dimensional data distributions. The Mode Explorer couples a scratching-interaction on a 2D scatter plot of high-dimensional data to real-time dynamical processes, excited in data space at the nearest mode in the probability density function (pdf) obtained by kernel-density estimation. Specifically, the sign-inverted pdf is used as a potential function in which test particles perform oscillations at low friction, yielding signals that can directly be played back as sound. This Model-based sonification approach is used to interactively search the distribution for different modes, learn about their details, i.e. the Hessian matrix at the mode, and thus enable a non-parametric parameter selection for appropriate bandwidth.

In this paper, we revisit, explore and extend the Particle Trajectory Sonification (PTS) model, which supports cluster analysis of high-dimensional data by probing a model space with virtual particles which are ‘gravitationally’ attracted to a mode of the dataset’s potential function. The particles’ kinetic energy progression of as function of time adds directly to a signal which constitutes the sonification. The exponential increase in computation power since its conception in 1999 enables now for the first time to investigate real-time interactivity in such complex interweaved dynamic sonification models. We speeded up the computation of the PTS model with (i) data optimization via vector quantization, and (ii) parallel computing via OpenCL. We investigated the performance of sonifying high-dimensional complex data under different approaches. The results show a substantial increase in speed when applying vector quantization and parallelism with CPU. GPU parallelism provided a substantial speedup for very large number of particles comparing to using CPU but did not show enough benefit for a low number of particles due to copying overhead. A hybrid OpenCL implementation is presented to maximize the benefits of both worlds.

This paper presents the SoZen system, an interactive decorative artifact that can control features of ambient soundscapes. The system aims at improving the sonic quality of work/living space. For that, features such as the placement of stones and patterns in the sand are extracted via a webcam and in turn control directly aspects of the sound playback/synthesis engine. We evaluated SoZen in a within-subject study to understand the benefit of interactive ambient soundscapes as participants worked in a sonically simulated office environment. Participants performed significantly better in terms of error rate in a spreadsheet-inputting task under the ambient soundscape condition compared to the baseline condition, and evaluated the system positively in a subsequent survey and interview. However, no significant difference in their psychological states between conditions are found based on the PANAS measure, apart from the Excited affect. SoZen serves as an example for how existing decoration artifacts can be transformed into multimodal (visual, auditory and tangible) user interfaces with positive side effects on their inhabitants in a home or office environment.

This paper presents a novel approach for using sound to externalize emotional states so that they become an object for communication and reflection both for the users themselves and for interaction with other users such as peers, parents or therapists. We present an abstract, vocal, and physiology-based sound synthesis model whose sound space each covers various emotional associations. The key idea in our approach is to use an evolutionary optimization approach to enable users to find emotional prototypes which are then in turn fed into a kernel-regression-based mapping to allow users to navigate the sound space via a low-dimensional interface, which can be controlled in a playful way via tablet interactions. The method is intended to be used for supporting people with autism spectrum disorder.

Smart homes have been mostly treated as homogeneous environments where each room is distinguished by the activities performed there but not by any fundamentally different basic parameters for systems to operate in. We argue that at least for bathroom environments, things like the extensive presence of liquid water and humidity and special privacy considerations challenge these assumptions. We discuss typical and unique challenges for ubiquitous computing interfaces in bathroom environments and we look at how actual and conceptual systems confront these challenges. We review bathroom systems in the literature and present two systems of our own to exemplify the unique challenges to smart environments the bathroom provides, one of which is presented here for the first time.

In this paper we introduce SoZen, a novel interface for parameterizing aspects of ambient soundscapes including ambient music and peripheral sonifications using a Zen Garden. The SoZen system is both a stylish and aesthetic artifact in daily living environments and a computer-vision-based tangible and malleable representation for sound features. Due to the immediate correspondence between the arrangement of stones and the shape of sand with sonic features it also becomes a persistent visualization of the current sonic ambience. Thus it offers a conceptually different and `calm' way of reviewing and specifying sounds. The paper focuses on the conceptual ideas and showcases our current system. We demonstrate some initial ambiences and conclude with current ideas on how to embed and evaluate SoZen in the context of a smart apartment environment.