Georgia Tech’s Sonification Lab Produces Cosmic Eclipse Melody for People with Visual Impairments

August 18, 2017 - To commemorate a once in a century eclipse, a group of researchers at the Georgia Tech’s Sonification Lab developed an audio experience for people with visual impairments to experience the eclipse. The cosmic melody was created in real-time based on data that occurred during the event, including the moon crossing the sun and the air temperature drops as the eclipse neared totality. The team of two graduate students was led by Professor Bruce Walker, and echoes their previous work in creating auditory experiences from visual information, including “sonifying” the movements of fish at the Georgia Aquarium, and the movements of the planets. 

 

Avrosh Juman, a recent Georgia Tech graduate in music technology and a member of the team stated, “There are so many things during an eclipse that you can attempt to translate through audio. Our main motive was to use music and sound to demonstrate what’s going on in the sky. At the same time, we wanted to create a pleasing, dramatic composition ... Listening to music is also an emotional experience. It makes sense to combine both for Monday’s once-in-a-lifetime event.”

 

Please follow this link to hear their out-of-this world composition: https://www.dropbox.com/s/arckqi78grmudrt/Eclipse_sonification_2-with-text-v4.mp4?dl=0