[Usability] sound as user interface aid

["Justin Ryan Nevitt" <jrn5a cms mail virginia edu>]

Ok so i had this idea...which is based on some work i've 
done/encountered with the auditory community but I don't 
know where I should go to start the project. I was 
thinking the KDE team or gnome team might be interested or 
i might start my own sourceforge project (though I've 
never managed a project there)...the intention is for it 
to be opensource and available to everyone:

Proposal: Sound Localization Sound Layer

Introduction
It has been shown in many different studies that users are 
more efficient in a multi-task environment where sound is 
used to direct their attention. This is especially true in 
immersive environments such as airplane cockpits and so 
called ?information cockpits? (I know i should cite 
someone here). For example a pilot benefits greatly from 
hearing alerts, which seem to come from the object that 
needs attention. Similarly, there are business and home 
applications for this type of attention management. For 
instance an alert could direct you to the physical 
location of your mailbox when you have a new message or it 
could alert you to a window containing a rapidly climbing 
stock price.

The idea:
The idea for this project is to create a sound 
layer/plugin that brings sound localization type attention 
management to the everyday PC. This layer should be made 
to work on linux and windows machines and will be 
opensource.

Implementation:
The implementation of this idea should be fairly 
straightforward. At its simplest level the layer will take 
information about application or icon location and modify 
the panning of sound output to direct attention to 
particular areas of the desktop. The application should be 
no harder to write than a simple mixer (although it should 
be able to play sounds at different panning locations at 
the same time.) The program should also have a tiny memory 
footprint.
Additional adjustable parameters:
Intensity of panning
Individual application settings
People probably will not want their music to be localized
Should be easy to turn on and off (tray icon possibly)
Turn real time panning on and off
If someone moves a window while it is creating sound will 
the panning move with it or will it reset only after the 
window is dropped?



The bottom line is...this attention management stuff is 
nothing new. However, it has always been implemented on 
the application level and never as part of a sound layer 
or a interface plugin.