721 Broadway
at Waverly Place
4th Floor
South Elevators
New York, NY 10003
For additional
information email
itp.inquiries@nyu.edu
or call 212.998.1880
| Fermata | ||
|---|---|---|
| Author(s): | Michael Jefferson Spencer Kiser David Yates |
 |
| Instructor: | ||
| Class: | Other | |
| URL: | http://www.fermatatime.com | |
| Documents: | soundscape(JPEG) | |
| Keywords: | audio, interface, surround sound, assistive technology | |
| Fermata explores the potential of a purely auditory calendar application for the visually impaired. | ||
| In our day-to-day lives, we process complex layering, mapping and placement of sounds to make sense of the world around us, yet, in our applications, this crucial sensory experience has been reduced to non-descript alarms. Our research challenges this paradigm with a prototype of a purely auditory calendar for the visually impaired. Through user research and testing with members of the blind community in Manhattan, we have designed a series of surround sound representations of common calendar information that lets users score the composition of their daily lives. | ||
| Background: | Fermata was designed in reaction to what we believe is an over taxed visual interface, the common desktop/mobile device calendar. As a team, we were given the challenge to explore time for the Microsoft Design Expo of 2005. After much debate over better visual displays, we decided to pursue a hunch that if we threw out visual interfaces all together, we might find something new, something overlooked. To learn more, we partnered with members of the blind community of Manhattan and spent several months listening, observing and testing ideas. Fermata is the product of this research. It is experimental and conceptual but grounded in real user needs and technological. Possibilities. | |
| Audience: | Anyone | |
| User Scenario: | Lynette is out for lunch at Bryant Park with her friend and co-worker Amy and they are discussing an upcoming concert series at Lincoln Center. Amy wants to know if Lynette is free closer to the end of the month in the evening. Lynette, who is legally blind, takes out her mobile device to check. It’s 2010 and her small device is capable of making calls, playing movies, accessing the web and most importantly, playing back surround sound to her small headphones. Lynette holds down the center circular button and speaks “hello Fermata.” An ascending tone tells her that the application is active and she speaks a command, “next week, overview.” She then listens as her week calendar of events, played back in a series of layered iconic sounds spatially placed from left to right. To her left she could hear her appointments on Monday and an evening training session in the middle on Wednesday but she did not hear anything on her far right signaling that her weekend is free. Lynette confirms the details with Amy and then through a combination of voice and keypad arrow clicks, books a Lincoln Center concert and dinner with her friend Amy. When she completes the entry, the event is played back in it’s iconic sound of applause and a clinking glass. The next time she plays back the week she will hear those off to her right in the spatial placement reserved for Saturday. | |
| Technical System Description: | Fermata is a series of surround sound soundscapes that represent what an auditory calendar application would sound like and how the data is placed and represented. | |
| Project References, Research and Literature: | TEAM Spencer Kiser Michael Jefferson David Yates SUPPORT & RESEARCH Lynette Tatum Karen Gourgey Jay Leventhal Jamie Allen ORIGINAL SOUND MIX Joe Trippiani | |
| Conclusions: | Sound mapping and layering can be extremely complex but holds great promise for providing access to information on small screen mobile devices. Any solution that provides information translation to the blind will in the end help all access our vital information. | |