SoniCross: Evaluating Annoyance in Sonifications for Electric Vehicles using Audio-Visual simulation

This paper proposes a framework for evaluating sonification designs for quiet electric vehicles using an audio-visual simulation. The aim underlying this research is that this methodology might provide some additional insight into assessing and optimising electric vehicle sonification designs for annoyance and potentially other variables. Previous studies have mainly focused on assessing annoyance of warning sounds or alarms for electric vehicles, with limited exploration of sonification designs. While auditory messages can quickly communicate complex information we tend to use our visual channel to confirm auditory events and for localisation. Therefore, it is discussed that it might be beneficial to evaluate sonification designs for electric vehicles though audio-visual simulations. In the course of this study, we evaluate a sonification model based on the rolling sphere synthesis model by Conan et.al (2013) [1] reported to show positive results in communicating the perception of an electric vehicle. A pilot test was conducted where subjects rated different sonification designs for annoyance through their interaction with the audio-visual system.