Re-Sounding Alarms: Designing Ergonomic Auditory Interfaces by Embracing Musical Insights

Re-Sounding Alarms: Designing Ergonomic Auditory Interfaces by Embracing Musical Insights

Auditory alarms are an important component of human–computer interfaces, used in mission-critical industries such as aviation, nuclear power plants, and hospital settings. Unfortunately, problems with recognition, detection, and annoyance continue to hamper their effectiveness. Historically, they ap...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Healthcare (Basel) Vol. 8; no. 4; p. 389
Main Authors: Foley, Liam, Anderson, Cameron J., Schutz, Michael
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Basel MDPI AG 08-10-2020
MDPI
Subjects:
Acoustics
auditory alarms
Communication
Design
Designers
ergonomics
human-factors
Intensive care
Interoperability
medical alarms
Medical personnel
Melody
Music
music cognition
music perception
Musicians & conductors
Nurses
Review
Segregation
Speech
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Auditory alarms are an important component of human–computer interfaces, used in mission-critical industries such as aviation, nuclear power plants, and hospital settings. Unfortunately, problems with recognition, detection, and annoyance continue to hamper their effectiveness. Historically, they appear designed more in response to engineering constraints than principles of hearing science. Here we argue that auditory perception in general and music perception in particular hold valuable lessons for alarm designers. We also discuss ongoing research suggesting that the temporal complexity of musical tones offers promising insight into new ways of addressing widely recognized shortcomings of current alarms.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-3
content type line 23
ObjectType-Review-1
ISSN:2227-9032
2227-9032
DOI:10.3390/healthcare8040389