Supporting audiography: Design of a system for sentimental sound recording, classification and playback

It is now commonplace to capture and share images in photography as triggers for memory. In this paper we explore the possibility of using sound in the same sort of way, in a practice we call audiography. We report an initial design activity to create a system called Audio Memories comprising a ten second sound recorder, an intelligent archive for auto-classifying sound clips, and a multi-layered sound player for the social sharing of audio souvenirs around a table. The recorder and player components are essentially user experience probes that provide tangible interfaces for capturing and interacting with audio memory cues. We discuss our design decisions and process in creating these tools that harmonize user interaction and machine listening to evoke rich memories and conversations in an exploratory and open-ended way