AUDITORY DISPLAY HISTORY

[Gregory Kramer <70312.265@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Colleagues:

A couple of months ago I sent out a call on the AUDITORY list asking for
information on early (or unusual) uses of non-speech audio to convey
information.  I'm enclosed a summary of the responses here.  If these
responses stimulate others, please contact me at :kramer@santafe.edu.

Thanks.

Gregory Kramer
Clarity/Santa Fe Institute
Nelson Lane
Garrison, NY  10524
914-424-4071
fax:914-424-3467
kramer@santafe.edu
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FLYBAR for flying an aircraft under instrument conditions using sound
(nonspatial, for the most part,i.e., only intensity panning).-- Beth Wenzel

Neurophysiologists still use amplifiers/speakers to listen to the
sound of spiking neurons. Since neurons spike at a rate from < 1 Hz to
1000Hz, their spike trains are pitched and easy to listen to and
to discern different neuron types.-----Josh Krieger, BBN

Roy Patterson's work on auditory alarms.---Chuck Watson

When LISP was first installed on the PDP-6, register 1 was reserved for
garbage collection computations.  This meant that, if you monitored it of
sound, you would hear bursts of noise whenever garbage collection took place
and silence otherwise.  This would give the user a crude idea of how much of
his clock time was going into garbage collection, rather than the computing he
intended. Contemporary systems now tend to do things like modify the cursor
when garbage collection is taking place, but I still tend to prefer the old
auditory cue. ----Stephen W. Smoliar

Morse code. Predates speech communication by radio and was used in telegraph
offices.---Leslie Smith

On the use of radios to diagnose computers, Boris Beizer mentions it in a
couple of his books.----Jim Ballas

The use of audio monitors to "Listen to Neurons" was well engrained
in the culture of the Neural Encoding Laboratory at the Johns Hopkins
University when I was a graduate student of Eric Young.  I believe that the
use of audio-visual aid in determining the responsivness of auditory nerve
fibers to acoustic stimulation was in place at the Eaton Peabody lab during
the early 60's.----Herb Voigt

Rebecca Mercuri mentioned Jesse Klapholz and Jon Sank, both audio engineers,
who have interesting historical perspectives.
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Remember, if you have any other thoughts or sources, please let me know.

Thanks.

Greg