Dr Sam Ferguson

Ferguson, S.J., Martens, W. & Cabrera, D. 2011, 'Statistical Sonification for Exploratory Data Analysis' in Thomas Hermann, Andy Hunt, John G. Neuhoff (eds), The Sonification Handbook, Logos Verlag Berlin GmBH, Berlin, Germany, pp. 175-196.
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At the time of writing, it is clear that more data is available than can be practically digested in a straightforward manner without some form of processing for the human observer. This problem is not a new one, but has been the subject of a great deal of practical investigation in many fields of inquiry. Where there is ready access to existing data, there have been a great many contributions from data analysts who have refined methods that span a wide range of applications, including the analysis of physical, biomedical, social, and economic data. A central concern has been the discovery of more or less hidden information in available data, and so statistical methods of data mining for `the gold in there+ have been a particular focus in these developments. A collection of tools that have been amassed in response to the need for such methods form a set that has been termed Exploratory Data Analysis [48], or EDA, which has become widely recognized as constituting a useful approach. The statistical methods employed in EDA are typically associated with graphical displays that seek to `tease out+ a structure in a dataset, and promote the understanding or falsification of hypothesized relationships between parameters in a dataset.

Ferguson, S.J., Beilharz, K.A. & Calo, C.A. 2012, 'Navigation of interactive sonifications and visualisations of time-series data using multi-touch computing', Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces, vol. 5, no. 3-4, pp. 97-109.
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This paper discusses interaction design for inter- active sonification and visualisation of data in multi-touch contexts. Interaction design for data analysis is becoming increasingly important as data becomes more openly avail- able. We discuss how navigation issues such as zooming, se- lection, arrangement and playback of data relate to both the auditory and visual modality in different ways, and how they may be linked through the modality of touch and gestural in- teraction. For this purpose we introduce a user interface for exploring and interacting with representations of time-series data simultaneously in both the visual and auditory modali- ties.

Ferguson, S.J., Schubert, E. & Dean, R. 2011, 'Continuous subjective loudness responses to reversals and inversions of a sound recording of an orchestral excerpt', Musicae Scientiae, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 387-401.
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Twenty-four respondents continuously rated the loudness of the first 65 seconds of a Dvorak Slavonic Dance, which was known to vary considerably in loudness. They also rated the same excerpt when the sound file was digitally treated so that (1) the sound pressure level (SPL) was inverted or (2) it was temporally reversed or (3) both 1 and 2. Specifically we wanted to see if acoustic intensity was processed into the percept of loudness primarily using a bottom-up (indifferent to timbral environment and thematic cues) or top-down style (where musical context, such as instrument identity and musical expectation affects the loudness rating). Comparing the different versions (conditions) allowed us to ascertain which style they were likely to be using. A single, six-second region was located as being differentiated across two conditions, where loudness seemed to be increased due to expectation of the instrument and orchestral texture, despite the lower SPL. We named this effect an auditory loudness stroop. A second region was differentiated between the two conditions, but its explanation appears to involve two factors, auditory looming perception and the reversal of stimulus note ramps. The overall conclusion was that the predominant processing style for loudness rating was bottom-up. Implications for further research and application to models of loudness are discussed.

Ferguson, S.J., Johnston, A.J., Ballard, K.J., Tan, C. & Perera-Schulz, D. 2012, 'Visual feedback of acoustic data for speech therapy: model and design parameters', Audio Mostly, Corfu, Greece, September 2012 in Proceedings of the 7th Audio Mostly Conference: A Conference on Interaction with Sound, ed Andreas Floros; Andreas Mniestris; Iani Zannos; Theodoros Lotis, ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 135-140.
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Feedback, usually of a verbal nature, is important for speech therapy sessions. Some disadvantages exist however with traditional methods of speech therapy, and visual feedback of acoustic data is a useful alternative that can be used to complement typical clinical sessions. Visual feedback has been investigated before, and in this paper we propose sev- eral new prototypes. From these prototypes we develop an iterative model of analysing the design of feedback sys- tems by examining the feedback process. From this iterative model, we then extract methods to inform design of visual feedback systems for speech therapy

Schubert, E., Ferguson, S.J., Farrar, N., Taylor, D. & McPherson, G.E. 2012, 'Continuous Response to Music using Discrete Emotion Faces', 9th International Symposium on Computer Music Modelling and Retrieval, London, UK, June 2012 in Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Computer Music Modelling and Retrieval, ed Barthet,Mathieu; Dixon, Simon, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK, pp. 3-19.
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An interface based on expressions in simple graphics of faces were aligned in a clock-like distribution with the aim of allowing participants to quickly and easily rate emotions in music continuously. We developed the interface and tested it using six extracts of music, one targeting each of the six faces: `Excited+ (at 1 o+clock), `Happy+ (3), `Calm+ (5), `Sad+ (7), `Scared+ (9) and `Angry+ (11). 30 participants rated the emotion expressed by these excerpts on our `emotion-face-clock+. By demonstrating how continuous category selections (votes) changed over time, we were able to show that (1) more than one emotion-face could be expressed by music at the same time and (2) the emotion face that best portrayed the emotion the music conveyed could change over time, and that the change could be attributed to changes in musical structure.

Taylor, D., Schubert, E., Ferguson, S.J. & McPherson, G.E. 2012, 'The Role of Musical Features in the Perception of Initial Emotion', CMMR 2012, London, June 2012 in Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Computer Music Modelling and Retrieval, ed Barthet,Mathieu; Dixon, Simon, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK, pp. 136-143.
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170 participants were played short excerpts of orchestral music and instructed to move a mouse cursor as quickly as possible to one of six faces that best corresponded to the emotion they thought the music expressed. Excerpts were analysed and the musical cues coded. Relationships between the number of cues and participantsÔ++ response times were investigated and reported. No relationship between the number of cues available to the listener and the speed of response was found. Findings suggest that the initial response to ecologically plausible musical excerpts is quite complex, and requires further investigation to provide emotion-retrieval models of music with psychologically driven data

Beilharz, K.A. & Ferguson, S.J. 2009, 'An Interface and Framework Design for interactive Aesthetic Sonification', International Conference on Auditory Display, Copenhagen, Denmark, May 2009 in Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Auditory Display, ed Mitsuko Aramaki and Richard Kronland-Martinet and Solvi Ystad and Kristoffer Jensen, Re:New Digital Arts Forum, Copenhagen, Denmark, pp. 1-8.
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This paper describes the interface design of our AeSon (Aesthetic Sonification) Toolkit motivated by user-centred customisation of the aesthetic representation and scope of the data. The interface design is developed from 3 premises that distinguish our approach from more ubiquitous sonification methodologies. Firstly, we prioritise interaction both from the perspective of changing scale, scope and presentation of the data and the user's ability to reconfigure spatial panning, modality, pitch distribution, critical thresholds and granularity of data examined. The user, for the majority of parameters, determines their own listening experience for real-time data sonification, even to the extent that the interface can be used for live data-driven performance, as well as traditional information analysis and examination. Secondly, we have explored the theories of Tufte, Fry and other visualization and information design experts to find ways in which principles that are successful in the field of information visualization may be translated to the domain of sonification. Thirdly, we prioritise aesthetic variables and controls in the interface, derived from musical practice, aesthetics in information design and responses to experimental user evaluations to inform the design of the sounds and display. In addition to using notions of meter, beat, key or modality and emphasis drawn from music, we draw on our experiments that evaluated the effects of spatial separation in multivariate data presentations.

Ferguson, S.J. & Beilharz, K.A. 2009, 'An Interface for Live Interactive Sonification', New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Pittsburgh PA, June 2009 in Proceedings of New Interfaces for Musical Expression, ed Roger B. Dannenberg and Kristi D. Ries, NIME, Pittsburgh PA, pp. 35-36.
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Beilharz, K.A., Jakovich, J. & Ferguson, S.J. 2006, 'Hyper-shaku [Border-crossing]: Towards the multi-modal gesture-controlled hyper-instrument', International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Paris, France, June 2006 in NIME06: Sixth International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression 2006, ed Schnell, N; Bevilacqua, F; Lyons, M; Tanaka, A., Ircam - Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, pp. 352-357.
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Ferguson, S.J., Cabrera, D., Beilharz, K.A., Song, H. 2006, 'Using Psychoacoustical Models for Auditory Display', International Conference on Auditory Display, London, UK, June 2006 in Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Auditory Display ICAD 2006, ed Tony Stockman et al, ICAD, London, UK, pp. 113-120.
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