Because our sense of hearing is less directional than our sense of
sight, and because we lack "earlids," audio will affect others present
in the same environment as the computer system. While the use of headphones
would cure this problem, many users do not like the feel of being "hooked-up"
to the computer, and so prefer not to
wear headphones.
A method of continuous sound, such as repetitive
music, has been proposed to create a sort of drone with intermittent,
salient features to provide information, hopefully with less annoyance
to on-listeners, as in
The Audible Web:
Another possible solution to controlling environmental noise is an
active level sensing that would alter the volume of the audible cues
depending on the level of
environmental noise, using a real-time limiting/expanding algorithm.
Similar systems currently designed for car audio systems are in use, and
their effectiveness remains to be seen.
Next Section:
All of the sounds used in The Audible Web are presented at
low levels above background noise in an effort to inform rather than
distract users.
As a result they learned that the individual user was less distracted
by salient audio cues, but what effect the presence of ubiquitous
background noise would have in a social situation requires more
investigation.
Techniques - How audio material is used on the Internet:
File Formats