Edukoi: developing an interactive sonification tool for astronomy between entertainment and education

TL;DR

Edukoi is an interactive sonification software designed to help visually impaired and sighted children explore astronomical images through sound, enhancing science and art education by translating visual data into auditory information.

Contribution

The paper introduces Edukoi, a modified sonification tool based on Herakoi, optimized for conveying detailed information about colors and hues to users, especially in educational settings.

Findings

Effective in conveying astronomical image data through sound

Engages children in science and art education

Potential to improve visual data comprehension for visually impaired users

Abstract

Edukoi is a software that aims to make interactive sonification suitable to convey and extract information. The program design is a modification of the software Herakoi, which sonifies images in real time mapping pitch to colour using a motion-aware approach for allowing users to interact with images through sound. The pitch-colour association of Hearkoi, albeit pleasing from the entertainment side, is not efficient for communicating specific information regarding colours and hues to listeners. Hence we modified it to create an instrument to be used by visually impaired and sighted children to explore images through sound and extract accurate information. We aim at building a flexible software that can be used in middle-schools for both art and science teaching. We tested its effectiveness using astronomical images, given the great fascination that astronomy always has on kids of all ages and backgrounds. Astronomy is also considered a very visual science, a characteristic that prevents students from learning this subject and having a related career. With this project we aim to challenge this belief and give to students the possibility to explore astronomical data through sound. Here we discuss our experiment, the choices we made regarding sound mappings, and what psychophysiological aspects we aim to evaluate to validate and improve Edukoi.