Sonified

Sonified is the past participle and past tense of the verb sonify. To sonify means to convert data or information into sound, creating an audible representation of something. The term is used in the field of data sonification, an area of auditory display that aims to reveal data patterns through audio rather than visual means.

In practice, data can be mapped to various sound parameters, such as pitch, timbre, loudness, rhythm, tempo, stereo panning, and spatial location. The resulting audio allows listeners to perceive trends, correlations, or anomalies that may be less apparent in graphs or numbers. Applications span scientific data analysis, including climate, seismology, and astronomy, as well as medical data like heart-rate or EEG signals. Sonified data is also used for accessibility, enabling visually impaired users to interpret information through listening. In the arts, data sonification is employed to create musical or sonic works from complex datasets.

Techniques in sonification range from static representations to real-time, interactive systems. Careful design is essential to avoid misleading interpretations, such as choosing appropriate data-to-sound mappings, avoiding perceptual biases, and ensuring a clear, consistent relationship between data and audio. Evaluation often involves perceptual studies to determine how effectively listeners can extract intended information from the sound.

See also: Sonification, Auditory display, Data visualization.