Syren - A Ship Based Location-Aware Audio Experience

Daniel Woo, Nick Mariette, Nigel Helyer, Chris Rizos

School of Computer Science and Engineering, The University of New South Wales, UNSW Sydney NSW 2052, Australia.
School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems, The University of New South Wales, UNSW Sydney NSW 2052, Australia.
Sonic Objects, P.O. Box 195, Balmain NSW 2041, Australia..

DOI:                 

Abstract

Syren, a location-based, multi-speaker augmented audio reality installation was presented as a shipboard exhibit at the 12th International Symposium on Electronic Art in August 2004. It was conceived as a continuous 3-day spatial audio experience that augments the landscape through the Baltic archipelago with location-based audio media, spatialised through a 12-channel speaker array. As the ship tracks between Helsinki, Mariehamn, Stockholm and Tallinn, listeners on the upper deck hear sounds that are perceived to originate from geographic features. Our custom GIS is derived from electronic nautical charting information that includes coastlines, buoys and beacons. A handheld GPS provides both position and direction data that was used by a software system to drive parameters of the spatial audio presentation. The sound production for the artwork was created using the custom application that enabled the artist to place sound media in relation to a real-world map. An important component to this software was the ability to audition the audio experience without ever taking the journey.

Keywords

Augmented audio reality, GPS applications, location-based media, Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Azuma R. (1997): A survey of augmented reality In Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, Vol. 6, No. 4 (August 1997), pp. 355-385.
[2]	Black A. (2003): readanysf~ http://aug.ment.org/readanysf/,accessed May 2004
[3]	Cohen M. (1994): Augmented Audio Reality: Design for a Spatial Sound GPS PGS. Center on Disabilities Virtual Reality Conference, 994. California State University, Northridgehttp://www.csun.edu/cod/conf/1994/proceeding s/Aar~1.htm, accessed November 13, 2004
[4]	Cohen M. (2002): A Survey of Emerging and Exotic Auditory Interfaces, Proceedings of the 2002 International Conference on Auditory Display, Kyoto , Japan, 02-1 – 02-16.
[5]	Fujihata M. (1992): Field-Works projects website, http://www.field-works.net/, accessed November 13, 2004
[6]	Helyer N. (2003): Sonic Landscapes, http://www. sonicobjects.com/sonic2/projectarchive/SONICLAND/ SONICLAND.HTM, accessed November 13, 2004
[7]	International Hydrographic Bureau (2000): IHO Transfer Standard For Digital Hydrographic Data, Edition 3.1 –Monaco, November 2000
[8]	Knowlton J.; Spellman N.; Hight J. (2002): 34 North, 118 West, http://34n118w.net/, accessed November 13, 2004 from
[9]	Kurgan L. (1995): You Are Here: Museu http://www.princeton.edu/%7Ekurgan/urhere/html/intro.ht m, accessed November 13, 2004
[10]	Mott I.; Sosnin J. (1997): Sound Mapping: an assertion of place. Proceedings of Interface 1997. http://www.reverberant.com/SM/paper.htm, accessed November 15, 2004
[11]	Perry B. (2002): The Invisible Ideas Project: Using Mobile Devices, Macromedia Flash, and Global Positioning Systems. Macromedia Developer Center article, http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/devices/articles/invisi ble_ideas.html, accessed November 13, 2004
[12]	Puckette M. (1996): Pure Data, Proceedings, International Computer Music Conference. San Francisco: International Computer Music Association, 269-272.
[13]	Pulkki V. (1997): Virtual sound source positioning using vector base amplitude panning, Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 45(6), 456-466.
[14]	Roads C. (2001): Microsound. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
[15]	Rosellini M. (2003): Four Coordinates Framework, http://freshmeat.net/projects/fourcoordinates/, accessed November 13, 2004
[16]	Rozier J.; Karahalios K.; Donath J. (2000): Hear & There: An Augmented Reality System of Linked Audio. http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/rozier00hearthere.html, accessed October 29, 2004
[17]	Warmerdam F. (2004): ISO8211Lib, http://gdal.velocet.ca/projects/iso8211/, accessed November 13, 2004
[18]	Wright M.; Freed A. (1997): Open Sound Control: A New Protocol for Communicating with Sound Synthesizers. ICMC 1997