Towards a Data Sonification Design Framework

The need for better software tools for data sonification was highlighted in the 1997 Sonification Report, the first comprehensive status review of the field which included some general proposals for adapting sound synthesis software to the needs of sonification research. It outlined the reasons the demands on software by sonification research are greater than those afforded by music composition and sound synthesis software alone. As its Sample Research Proposal acknowledged, the development of a comprehensive sonification shell is not easy and the depth and breadth of knowledge, and skills required to effect such a project are easily underestimated. Although many of the tools developed to date have various degrees of flexibility and power for the integration of sound synthesis and data processing, a complete heterogeneous Data Sonification Design Framework (DSDF) for research and auditory display has not yet emerged. This chapter outlines the requirements for such a comprehensive framework, and proposes an integration of various existing independent components such as those for data acquisition, storage and analysis, together with a means to include new work on cognitive and perceptual mappings, and user interface and control, by encapsulating them, or control of them, as Python libraries, as well as a wrappers for new initiatives, which together, form the basis of SoniPy, a comprehensive toolkit for computational sonification designing.