Editing Sonification (section)

{{Short description|Use of non-speech audio to convey information}}
{{distinguish|Sonication}}
[[File:Air Play - Sonification of Beijing Air Quality Data.webm|thumb|upright=1.4|Video of [[air pollution]] data from Beijing being conveyed as a piece of music]]
'''Sonification''' is the use of non-speech [[Sound|audio]] to convey [[information]] or perceptualize data.<ref name = "kramer">{{cite book |editor-last=Kramer |editor-first=Gregory |year=1994 |title=Auditory Display: Sonification, Audification, and Auditory Interfaces |series=Santa Fe Institute Studies in the Sciences of Complexity |volume=Proceedings Volume XVIII |publisher=Addison-Wesley |location=Reading, MA |isbn=978-0-201-62603-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/auditorydisplays00greg }}</ref> [[Auditory system|Auditory perception]] has advantages in temporal, spatial, amplitude, and frequency resolution that open possibilities as an alternative or complement to [[Data visualization|visualization]] techniques.

For example, the rate of clicking of a [[Geiger counter]] conveys the level of radiation in the immediate vicinity of the device.

Though many experiments with [[data sonification]] have been explored in forums such as the [[International Community for Auditory Display]] (ICAD), sonification faces many challenges to widespread use for presenting and analyzing data. For example, studies show it is difficult, but essential, to provide adequate context for interpreting sonifications of data.<ref name = "kramer"/><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Smith |first1=Daniel R. |last2=Walker |first2=Bruce N.|date=2005|title=Effects of Auditory Context Cues and Training on Performance of a Point Estimation Sonification Task.|journal=Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology |volume=19 |issue=8 |pages=1065–1087|doi=10.1002/acp.1146}}</ref> Many sonification attempts are coded from scratch due to the lack of flexible tooling for sonification research and data exploration.<ref>{{Citation
 | chapter = Thirteen years of reflection on auditory graphing: Promises, pitfalls, and potential new directions
 | title = Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Auditory Display
 | editor = Brazil, Eoin
 | year = 2005
 | pages = 406–409
 | chapter-url = http://www.icad.org/Proceedings/2005/Flowers2005.pdf
 | author = Flowers, J. H.
}}</ref>