Sound Effect Metaphors for Near Field Distance Sonification

This article presents a concept of distance sound source sonification for virtual auditory displays in the context of the creation of an assistive device for the visually impaired. In order to respond to user needs, three sonification metaphors of distance based on sound effects were designed. These metaphors can be applied to any type of sound and thereby satisfy all aesthetic desires of users. The paper describes the motivation to use this new type of sonification based on sound effects, and proposes guidelines for the creation of these three metaphors. It then presents a user evaluation of these metaphors by 16 subjects through a near field sound localization experiment. The experiment included a simple binaural rendering condition in order to compare and quantify the contribution of each metaphor on the distance perception.

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