Concurrent Data Sonification via Harmonic Compliance Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Computing devices with limited or no visual display capabilities, such as smart speakers and smart watches, face challenges in efficiently monitoring complex data sets due to their lack of visual display capabilities.
Innovation Solution
A method for concurrent sonic presentation of multiple data sets using harmonious or discordant musical keys based on compliance with separate and combined thresholds, allowing users to determine compliance through auditory feedback via a loudspeaker, thereby overcoming user-interface limitations and improving accessibility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If visual display capabilities are used to monitor complex data sets, then monitoring efficiency is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the visual display system with an auditory presentation system. Instead of requiring visual displays to monitor complex data sets, the system converts data compliance information into acoustic signals - harmonious tones for compliance and discordant tones for non-compliance. This substitution allows efficient monitoring without visual displays, resolving the contradiction between monitoring efficiency and device complexity.
2Loss of information
If multiple data sets are monitored concurrently with separate visual displays, then monitoring completeness is improved, but information overload and user confusion increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple data set monitoring into a unified auditory presentation. Multiple data sets are monitored concurrently, and their compliance statuses are combined into a single harmonic composition. When all data sets comply, harmonious tones are produced; when any non-compliance occurs, discordant tones result. This merging approach maintains complete monitoring information while avoiding visual clutter and user confusion.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by assigning specific musical characteristics to represent different compliance states. Harmonious musical keys represent compliance with thresholds, while discordant keys represent non-compliance. This localized mapping of quality attributes (musical harmony/discord) to data states enables intuitive differentiation of multiple data conditions without requiring separate visual displays for each.
3Ease of operation
If auditory presentation is used instead of visual display, then accessibility is improved, but information precision and detail may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the presentation parameter from visual to auditory modalities while maintaining precision through careful parameter mapping. Data compliance is encoded into acoustic parameters - specifically, harmonious versus discordant musical intervals and key relationships. This parameter transformation preserves the precision of compliance detection (accurate threshold comparison) while improving accessibility through auditory output, as the human ear can reliably distinguish harmonic from dissonant relationships.
Data Source
AI summary
In some embodiments, a computer-implemented method of arranging and presenting a concurrent sonic representation of multiple data sets is provided. For each data set of a plurality of data sets, a threshold for compliance for the data set is determined, and a first set of musical tones and a second set of musical tones for the data set are selected. The first set of musical tones sounds harmonious and represents compliance to the threshold and wherein the second set of musical tones sounds discordant and represents non-compliance to the threshold. Concurrent presentation of musical tones for multiple data sets sounds harmonious when a combined threshold is met by the multiple data sets and sounds discordant when the combined threshold is not met by the multiple data sets.