Sound Mapping: the cards come to life

Google Maps perfect at all times to provide even more realism to the cyber-globe-trotter: building 3D photos added by users, etc … All this is fascinating, but it lacks the human dimension. You walk in these cities duplicated on a computer just like robots.

This is where the sound is revealed as a valuable asset. We hear the passage of time, human activity, the sounds of nature. Elements that allow a deeper immersion into the scanned elsewhere. Several experiments in that hatch around the world, often at the initiative of passionate volunteers.

Distinguish by this new practice of “sound mapping” of long-standing “Soundwalks”. The latter are more like stories to listen on the go, tourist audio guides as well as artistic. The sound maps are a matter rather of the creation of associated data. We can “grow” a card with information such as addresses, opening hours, comments, photos, temperatures, statistics. Many “datas” tangible, to which the “data” will add noise of life.

Sound, blind geographers

In 1994, the American geographer John Krygier , became an activist participatory mapping, had lamented the death of his corner in his discipline. He wanted to bring the sound as a tool to specify card reading: “Our sense of hearing can be used to expand the repertoire of cartographic representations.”

By varying the height, intensity, timbre, duration of a sound, it acts on more dimensions than playing with colors, shapes and proportions. “The sound gives us more choices than the image to reflect the diversity of modes of exploration and understanding of the complex world, physical and human, we live.” Ambitious, is not it?

But if we are not even this degree of precision in the use of the data noise, the pleasure of the ear can already grow very advantageously Google Maps.

Experience by going to the Montreal Sound Map (screenshot above), the site of the most successful sound map. Each small circle represents a sound, placed exactly where it was recorded, using various techniques (hence the variety of symbols). One or two minutes of pure ambient sound to enjoy on site. The nice thing is to put in pedestrian mode, to get lost in the streets on the lookout for small sounds. Note that each can enrich the free sound library.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, December 24th, 2011 at 5:40 pm and is filed under Technology. Tags: Sound You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.