Towards a new approach to design sounds in public transport

Authors: Parseihian G., Delgrange E., Bourdin C., Bréjard, V., Arpaja, D., Agier, F., Kronland-Martinet R.
Publication Date: August 2016 (Proc. of the 12th International Symposium on CMMR, S ̃ao Paolo, Brazil, July 5-8, 2016)

Tags: Sonification, Sound and Motion, Sound Design, Spatialization

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Abstract

This paper presents a collaborative project between the Marseille transit operator and several laboratories from Aix-Marseille University to improve the bus trip with auditory information. A high quality multi channel sound spatialization system was integrated in the bus and a sonification software based on geolocation was designed in order to study three fundamental actions of the sound on bus passengers: designing sound announcement to inform passengers of the next stop in a playful and intuitive way, brightening up the route with spatialized soundscapes to increase the trips pleasantness, and using sound to alert passengers of emergency braking. First, the overall concepts of this project are presented, then the integration of the sound spatialization system and the implementation of the sonification software are described. Finally, evaluation method of passengers satisfaction is discussed.

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