SOUND EFFECTS FOR A SILENT COMPUTER SYSTEM                                           

Christian Mller-Tomfelde                                     
IPSI - Integrated Publication and Information Systems Institute                     
Fraunhofer IPSI, Dolivostr. 15, D-64293 Darmstadt, Germany                         
mueller-tomfelde@ipsi.fhg.de                                           

                                    


ABSTRACT                                 
This paper proposes the sonification of the activity of a computer 
system that allows the user to monitor the basic performance     
parameters of the system, like CPU load, read and write activity                                            
of the hard disk or network traffic. Although, current computer  
systems still produce acoustic background noise, future and                                                 
emerging computer systems will be more and more optimized                                                   
with respect to their noise emission. In contrast to most of the                                            
concepts of auditory feedback, which present a particular sound                                             
as a feedback to a users command, the proposed feedback is                                                 
mediated by the running computer system. The users interaction                                             
stimulates the system and hence the resulting feedback offers                                               
more realistic information about the current states of                                                      
performance of the system. On the one hand the proposed                                                     
sonification can mimic the acoustical behavior of operating                                                 
components inside a computer system, while on the other hand,                                               
new qualities can be synthesized that enrich interaction with the                                           
device. Different forms of sound effects and generation for the                                             
proposed auditory feedback are realized to experiment with the                                              
usage in an environment of silent computer systems.                                                         



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