Closed

Closing the Loop of Sound Evaluation and Design

Project Directors

  • Prof. Dr. Jill Scott
  • Jacqueline Otten (Head Design Department)

Contact

Project leaders

  • Karmen Franinovic
  • Yon Visell

Project Description 

Concept: When designing the sonic aspect of an artefact, the designer wants to be able to explore a variety of "what-if" possibilities at the phenomenological, experiential, and emotional level. The CLOSED project provides a measurement tool that is capable of analyzing sounds in a given cultural context and at the same provides high level of interpretation used by designers, in a way that is closely linked to the experience of many users. The aim is to boost the emerging discipline of sound design. It is believed that an objective measurement of functional-aesthetic sound qualities of artefacts is the key component that will allow the effective closure of the iterative loop of sound evaluation and design.

Objectives

The CLOSED project aims at providing a functional-aesthetic sound tool that can be profitably used by designers in different cultural situations At one end, this tool is linked with physical attributes of sound-enhanced everyday objects; at the other end it relates to a variety of users emotional responses. The key to closing the sound design loop is the availability of suitable measurement tools and criteria. This is indeed the kernel objective of the project, and this will be achieved by structuring the project itself as an iterative design process in several steps. These include: designing and measuring emotional responses to artefacts, classifications of everyday sound objects, building sound synthesis models and creating structures for the comparison of similarities, differences and finally incorporating the findings into a measurement tool with the necessary improvements.

End result

The CLOSED project aims at providing a set of basic scientific tools for the realm of sound design to connect form and function based on phenomenology, cultural difference, system modelling, mathematics and psychology.

Conference Papers

  • K. Franinovic. "Basic Interaction Design for Sonic Artefacts in Everyday Contexts". Focused - Current Design Research Projects and Methods. Swiss Design Network. Bern, 2008.
  • K. Franinovic, Y. Visell "Strategies for Sonic Interaction Design: From Context to Basic Design". Proc. of the 14th International Conference on Auditory Display, Paris, 2008. 
  • Y. Visell, J.Cooperstock, B. Giordano, K. Franinovic, S. McAdams et al. "A Vibrotactile Device for Display of Virtual Ground Materials in Walking", Proc. of the Eurohaptics conference. Madrid, 2008.
  • Y. Visell, K. Franinovic, J. Cooperstock. "EcoTile: An Architectural Platform for Audio-Haptic Simulation in Walking". Proc. of the 4th Intl. Conf. on Enactive Interfaces, Grenoble, 2007.
  • K. Franinovic, Y. Visell, D. Hug. "Sound Embodied: A Report on Sonic Interaction Design in Everyday Artefacts". in Proc. of the 13th International Conference on Auditory Display. Montreal, 2007.
  • D. Rocchesso, K. Franinovic, P. Susini, Y. Visell, N. Misdariis, G.Lemaitre, O. Houix, P. Polotti, K. Obermayer, H. Purwins, K. Adiloglu, "Closing the Loop of Sound Evaluation and Design", in Proc. of the ISCA/DEGA Tutorial and Research Workshop on Perceptual Quality of Systems, Berlin, 2006.

Exhibitions and Conference Demonstrations

  • Y. Visell, K. Franinovic, N. Misdariis, P. Susini, G.Lemaitre and O. Houix, CLOSED at Demain, c'est aujourd'hui exhibition. 10th Biennale Internationale du Design de Saint-Etienne. 2008.
  • K. Franinovic  Flo(ps), interactive glasses at Amplified Intimacies, an Interstices group exhibition. Oboro Gallery, Montreal, 2008.
  • K. Adiloglu, R. Annies, Y. Visell, K. Franinovic, C. Drioli  "Adaptive Bottle", Twenty-First Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems . Vancouver, B.C., Canada. 2007.

Research Reports

  • Y. Visell, K. Franinovic. "Experimental Sonic Objects: Concepts, Development and Prototypes" Deliverable 3.2. CLOSED project, June 2008. 
  • K. Franinovic. Report on the MINET (Measuring the impossible network) study-visit to the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (Ircam) in Paris, June 2008.
  • K. Franinovic, Y. Visell, D. Hug. "Sonic Interaction Design Research: Case Studies, Participatory Design, Scenarios, and Product Concepts" Deliverable 3.1 CLOSED project, 2007.
  • O. Houix, G. Lemaitre, N. Misdariis, P. Susini, K. Franinovic, Y. Visell. "Sound perception, interaction and synthesis" Deliverable 4.1 CLOSED project , 2007.

Other

  • CLOSED. Exploring the sound: the neglected design dimension. NEST pathfinder, European Commission publication 2007.

Workshops

  • CLOSED/SID workshop at the 14th International Conference on Auditory Display , IRCAM, Paris, June 24-28, 2008
  • Summer School in Sound and Music Computing, CLOSED workshop, Stockholm, 2-5 July 2007

Partners

CLOSED is a collaborative research project between the ICS and the Department of Design HGKZ together with the following international partners:

  • IRCAM Institute de Recherché et de Acoustique/Musique Paris France
  • Università di Verona UNIVERONA Verona, Italy
  • Berlin University of Technology Neural Information Processing Group NIPG   Berlin, Germany.

Project duration

  • 01.07.2006 - 30.06.2009

Project Financing

  • 6th Framework Programme of European Commission, New and Emerging Science and Technology, "Measuring the Impossible" project no 29085.
  • ICS
  • Department Design ZHdK