Interactive Spatial Auditory Display of Graphical Data

This thesis describes a series of experiments designed to test auditory display techniques for interactive image sonification on a tablet computer. The aim of these experiments was to evaluate new sonic methods developed for finding graphical features on a tablet computer screen for both regular size, and extended (larger than physical screen size) displays. A series of tests were designed to evaluate the techniques, and determine the effectiveness of binaural information in a series of goal-oriented searching tasks. The results show that, by using the techniques developed, users can locate graphical features on regular and extended displays, using sound alone. Additionally, it was found that users could improve their search times when using auditory information to improve their ability to search extended displays.