AES Amsterdam 2008: Workshop W13

Sunday, May 18, 13:30 — 16:30
W13 - AUDIO AND AUDIO-TACTILE WARNINGS AND ALERTS: FORMING TODAY'S SOUNDSCAPE

Chair:
Durand Begault, NASA Ames Research Center - Moffett Field, CA, USA
Co-chairs:
Ellen Haas, Army Research Lab
Caryl Baldwin, George Mason University
Judy Edworthy, University of Plymouth
Anne Guillaume, ISMA
Elif Ozcan, Technical University of Delft
Rene VanEgmond, Technical University of Delft

Abstract:
Audio warning and alert signals are omnipresent in the soundscape of modern society, ranging from warnings (sirens), to sounds from human interfaces (pushbutton sounds on devices), to cell phone ring tones. Attention has only been given fairly recently in the human factors research community toward the best means of making caution and warning signals discriminable, audible, and tolerable; some high-stress human interfaces are also concerned with increasing the richness of the semantic content of these alarms. Ironically, while it is well documented that people have ignored critical audio alarms in flight and railroad operations, personalized cell telephone ring tones have an apparently high “hit” rate, while simultaneously alerting (and annoying) others. Discussion topics for this workshop include assessment of current standards and best practices for design of auditory alerts; new approaches to forming the sound design of alarms, including multimodal approaches such as including tactile displays; new approaches to forming the sound design of alarms, and defining what best (or worst!) practices might be. We may obtain as a result an idea of how the soundscape of future decades may sound like (or what we would like it to sound like).

Last Updated: 20080612, tendeloo

AES Amsterdam 2008Workshop W13

AES Amsterdam 2008
Workshop W13