A proposal and evaluation of new timbre visualization methods for audio sample browsers

Searching through vast libraries of sound samples can be a daunting and time-consuming task. Modern audio sample browsers use mappings between acoustic properties and visual attributes to visually differentiate displayed items. There are few studies focused on how well these mappings help users sear...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPersonal and ubiquitous computing Vol. 25; no. 4; pp. 723 - 736
Main Authors Richan, Etienne, Rouat, Jean
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Springer London 01.08.2021
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Acoustic mapping
Acoustic properties
Acoustics
Color
Computer Science
Design
Labels
Libraries
Metadata
Methods
Mobile Computing
Original Article
Personal Computing
Sound
Texture
User Interfaces and Human Computer Interaction
Visualization
Known-item search
Texture synthesis
Shape
Timbre perception
Media browsers
Color
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Summary:Searching through vast libraries of sound samples can be a daunting and time-consuming task. Modern audio sample browsers use mappings between acoustic properties and visual attributes to visually differentiate displayed items. There are few studies focused on how well these mappings help users search for a specific sample. We propose new methods for generating textural labels and positioning samples based on perceptual representations of timbre. We perform a series of studies to evaluate the benefits of using shape, color, or texture as labels in a known-item search task. We describe the motivation and implementation of the study, and present an in-depth analysis of results. We find that shape significantly improves task performance, while color and texture have little effect. We also compare results between in-person and online participants and propose research directions for further studies.
ISSN:1617-4909
1617-4917
DOI:10.1007/s00779-020-01388-1