Discrete REconfigurable Aural Matrix (DREAM) project, formely known as AMHDI is one of DISIS (http://disis.music.vt.edu) studies funded by the VT ISCE (http://www.isce.vt.edu) summer grant. As a result this past summer it has reached its first milestone. In collaboration with Dr. Gracanin and Dr. Quek we have conducted an IRB-approved study using the newly built prototype. The study consisted of SVG geometric shapes sonified and presented to subjects using solely aural stimuli via DREAM interface. Our preliminary data analysis suggests that over 73% of people with average hearing could detect shape, 78% location, and over 56% were fully accurate in determining its size (lower score here was attributed to the fact that we had an array of limited resolution). We are currently in process of using this groundbreaking data to pursue external funding as well as various publications. One of the obvious uses is enhancing quality of life for the visually impaired to whom image perception continues to be one of the most time consuming tasks, but there are also several commercial applications we have identified and are very much interested in pursuing.
 
Since we relied upon Nintendo Wiimotes for user feedback (they painted shapes onto the aural canvas which were logged for study purposes), we've also used this as an opportunity to build an aural version of the Pong game and had lots [too much?] fun playing it.
 
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