06/01/1998 09:00 AM
Biomolecular Engineering
We present and evaluate an integrated visualization/sonification environment for analyzing protein structural alignments (superpositions of two or more protein structures in three- dimensional space). We explore how the use of sound can enhance the perception and recognition of specific aspects of the local environment at given positions in the molecular structure represented. Analysis of protein structures is an area in which it is often necessary to examine many variables simultaneously. This is one reason that we chose this field as our data domain. Sonification presents the opportunity to improve understanding of the data both in terms of enhancing or disambiguating parameters which are already represented visually, and perhaps more importantly, in extending the number of variables that may be represented simultaneously, particularly by the inclusion of features that are difficult to represent visually. In order to maximize the ability of our sonifications to represent data, we used voices and melodic components that were very distinct. We also used several musical effects such as panning a voice to the left or right speaker, or changing a voice\'s volume to maximize the individuality of the sonification elements. In addition to enhancing the perception of data features presented visually, we also strove to make our sonifications pleasing and musically idiomatic.
