Browsing audio data is not as easy as browsing printed documents because of the temporal nature of sound. Dynamic Soundscape is a browsing environment that provides a spatial interface for temporal navigation of audio data, taking advantage of human abilities of simultaneous listening and memory of spatial location. Instead of fast-forwarding or rewinding, users browse the audio data by switching their attention between moving sound sources that play multiple portions of a single audio recording. The motion of the sound sources maps temporal position within the audio recording onto spatial location, so that listeners can use their memory of spatial location to find a specific topic. We designed a hand-gesture interface for the intuitive control of audio. Users can play their desired audio data by simply pointing to the location where he/she heard the audio.

Dynamic Soundscape website