Effects of Scene and Human Action Auditory Icons in Stereophonic Image Sonification System

In this paper, we develop the automatic image sonification system using auditory icons and their stereophonic presentation. We evaluated the effects of object sounds, scene sounds, and human action sounds on the sense of presence. The results showed that our system can generate a sound that is close to the ones that would be heard from the image. The results also showed that scene and human action sounds contribute to the improvement of the sense of presence. It is expected that our sonification system provides not only a more immersive experience for sighted people through images, but also an opportunity to share the experience with people with visual impairment through social networking services.