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Reviewed by:
  • International Conference on Auditory Display 2002
  • Bob L. Sturm
International Conference on Auditory Display 2002 Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute, Kyoto, Japan, 2–5 July 2002

The latest edition of the International Conference on Auditory Display, ICAD2002 (www.icad.org or www.mic.atr.co.jp/icad2002/page/ welcome.html), was held at the Advanced Telecommunications Research (ATR) Institute in Kyoto, Japan on July 2–5. This conference brings together a variety of professionals, researchers, and students in fields such as sonification, data visualization, auditory perception, human computer interaction (HCI), virtual acoustic environments (VAE), as well as a few interdisciplinary artists. This year's presenters came from Europe, Australia, Japan, and the USA, and a few from Canada and Singapore. In addition to the academic presence, there were several participants from professional sectors: Nokia, France Telecom Research & Development, Minolta, Canon, Matsushita Communication, NASA Ames Research Center, Rockwell Scientific, as well as the United States Naval and Air Force Research Laboratories. The corporate presence signifies the growing interest in, and applicability of, auditory display techniques for commercial products such as cellular phones and digital cameras, as well as ongoing work in virtual reality and data-set visualization.

Auditory display (AD) is the use of sound to communicate between machine and human, and to explore and understand one's environment. Some examples are the Geiger counter, computer error beeps, crosswalks for the blind, and hospital vital sign monitors. More complex examples are SONAR, sonification of multidimensional data-sets, and complex military simulations. AD can provide an eyes-free and non-intrusive medium to communicate essential information about a situation. For example, in the operating room, eyes should be devoted to the procedure and not distracted by having to watch a record of a patient's vital signs.

ICAD2002 was significant in that it marked the ten-year anniversary of its inception at the Santa Fe Institute (SFI). Gregory Kramer, who conceived and helped organize the first ICAD in 1992, gave the keynote address in Kyoto. He talked about the history of ICAD and how its legitimacy was established by two key publications: the proceedings of the first conference published by SFI in 1994 (Kramer, G., ed. Auditory Display: Sonification, Audification, and Auditory Interfaces. Santa Fe Institute Studies in the Sciences of Complexity, Proc. Vol. XVIII. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1994), and a report funded by the National Science Foundation (USA) on the field and status of AD (Kramer, G., B. Walker, et al. 1999. Sonification Report: Status of the Field and Research Agenda, ICAD, Santa Fe; online at www.icad.org). Mr. Kramer talked at length about the multidisciplinary nature of AD, emphasizing that its successful application requires knowledge of sound, psychoacoustics, audio programming, and HCI. This makes a conference such as ICAD to be "both focused and open," allowing for a mixed interplay of disciplines and participants. Mr. Kramer's address was also focused and open when he invited on the spot several participants to speak who have been instrumental in ICAD's continual success.

Elizabeth Wenzel, who researches spatial hearing at NASA Ames Research Center in California, was essential in organizing the first ICAD, and continues to actively participate. The current ICAD president, Eric Somers, talked about how he became involved through his sound-art work. Stephen Barrass and Bruce Walker were both asked to discuss how ICAD added legitimacy to their doctoral research, which is entirely devoted to AD. Matti Gröhn, multimodal virtual reality researcher at Helsinki University, Finland, has attended every ICAD and remarked on its progress. These participants demonstrate the wide base of disciplines that have been and continue to be active in this international research community.

During the four days of the conference there were five tutorials, several paper and poster presentations, two demonstrations, a multimedia installation, a brief concert, and the traditional open-microphone session. One was able to attend everything since ICAD is a single-track conference.

The first day was devoted to five tutorials, but only two of them fit that function. Simon Carlile, from the University of Sydney, Australia, presented a useful overview of auditory dimensions. He talked in detail about the sensitivity of our ears and the benefits and...

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