Contextual Awareness, Messaging and Communication in Nomadic Audio Environments

Nomadic Radio provides an audio-only wearable interface to unify remote information services such as email, voice mail, hourly news broadcasts, and personal calendar events. These messages are automatically downloaded to a wearable device throughout the day and users can browse them using speech recognition and tactile input. To provide an unobtrusive interface for nomadic users, the audio/text information is presented using a combination of ambient and auditory cues, synthetic speech and spatialized audio. A notification model developed in Nomadic Radio dynamically selects the relevant presentation level for incoming messages based on message priority, user activity and the level of conversation in the environment. Temporal actions of the user such as activating or ignoring messages while listening, reinforce or decay the presentation level over time and change the underlying notification model. Scaleable notification allows incoming messages to be dynamically presented as subtle ambient sounds, distinct VoiceCues, spoken summaries or spatialized audio streams foregrounded for the listener. This thesis addresses techniques for peripheral awareness, spatial listening and contextual notification to manage the user’s focus of attention on a wearable audio computing platform. Thesis Supervisor: Christopher M. Schmandt Title: Principal Research Scientist, MIT Media Laboratory