Visualization of perceptual qualities in textural sounds

We describe a visualization strategy that is capable of effi-ciently representing relevant perceptual qualities of textu-ral sounds. The general aim is to develop intuitive screen-based interfaces representing large collections of sounds, where sound retrieval shall be much facilitated by the ex-ploitation of cross-modal mechanisms of human percep-tion. We propose the use of metaphoric sensory properties that are shared between sounds and graphics, constructing a meaningful mapping of auditory to visual dimensions. For this purpose, we have implemented a visualization using tiled maps, essentially combining low-dimensional projection and iconic representation. To prove the suit-ability we show detailed results of experiments having been conducted in the form of an online survey. Potential future use in music creation is illustrated by a prototypic sound browser application. 1