Automatic sound generation for spherical objects hitting straight beams based on physical models

Develops concepts, methods and a prototype for an audio framework that describes sounds on a highly abstract semantic level. We describe each sound as the result of interactions between objects at a certain place and in a certain environment. The interaction attributes influence the generated sound. Simultaneously, the participating objects can consist of different physical conditions, materials and configurations. All relevant attributes have an influence on the generated sound. The hearing of sounds in everyday life is based on the perception of events, not on the perception of sounds as such, so sounds are often described by the events they are based on. A concept for the description of sounds is presented, in which sounds can be represented as auditory signal patterns along several descriptive dimensions of various objects interacting together in a certain environment. On the basis of the differentiation of purely physical and purely semantic descriptive dimensions, automatic sound generation is discussed on the physical and semantic levels. We describe the sound class `solid objects', because this class occurs frequently in everyday life, the interacting objects can be easily described by their material characteristics and the knowledge of solid-state physics can be used. The falling of a spherical elastic object on to a linear elastic beam is modelled, and implemented on a SGI workstation. The main parameters which influence the impact behaviour of such objects are discussed. A better understanding of the capabilities, restrictions and problems of existing instruments for the automatic generation of audio data can be anticipated