Paul Vickers

Northumbria University · Department of Computer and Information Sciences

Many networks exhibit small-world properties. The structure of a small-world network is characterized by short average path lengths and high clustering coefficients. Few graph layout methods capture this structure well which limits their effectiveness and the utility of the visualization itself. Here we present an extension to our novel graphTPP la...

Auditory display is concerned with the use of non-speech sound to communicate information. If the term seems at first oxymoronic, then consider auditory display as an activity of perceptualization, that is, the process of making perceptible to humans aspects or features of a given data set or system. Most commonly this is done using visual represen...

Many algorithms for graph layout have been devised over the last 30 years spanning both the graph drawing and information visualisation communities. This article first reviews the advances made in the field of graph drawing that have then often been applied by the information visualisation community. There then follows a discussion of a range of te...

This paper combines the vocabulary of semiotics and category theory to provide a formal analysis of visualization. It shows how familiar processes of visualization fit the semiotic frameworks of both Saussure and Peirce, and extends these structures using the tools of category theory to provide a general framework for understanding visualization in...

One underexplored method for examining sonification perception is through spatialised audio parameter mapping. To lower the entry threshold for listeners unfamiliar with sonification, binaural rendering of Ambisonic audio is employed as a spatialisation technique. A Pure Data patch was developed and a listener study was conducted to investigate par...

In June 2020, the Vienna Declaration shed light on the viability of artistic research with an identity of its own. In its introduction, it explicitly states the need to “guarantee and incorporate post-graduate studies based on practice, in higher arts education in all European countries, in order to further develop artistic research...”. For the ti...

The field of Sound Studies has changed and developed dramatically over the last two decades involving a vast and dizzying array of work produced by those working in the arts, social sciences and sciences. The study of sound is inherently interdisciplinary and is undertaken both by those who specialize in sound and by others who wish to include soun...

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translate...

Proceedings of ICAD 2019

Like audification, auditory graphs maintain the temporal relationships of data while using parameter mappings to represent the ordinate values. Such direct approaches have the advantage of presenting the data stream ‘as is’ without the imposed interpretations or accentuation of particular features found in indirect approaches. However, datasets can...

[NOTE: This article is open access and freely available by following the DOI] Today’s computer networks are under increasing threat from malicious activity. Botnets (networks of remotely controlled computers, or “bots”) operate in such a way that their activity superficially resembles normal network traffic which makes their behaviour hard to dete...

FIN behaviour. SoNSTAR FIN scan audio file. The scan was performed using hping3. (AIF)

SoNSTAR: IP flow log file. Text file consists IP flows information. Each raw consists first, time window number, then the IP flow number within current time window, then host A IP address, host B IP address, and then the feature counts sorted in the same sequence in S1 Appendix. (TEXT)

SoNSTAR: Flow and IP flow feature information array contents. This file shows the contents of the feature information arrays for Traffic flows and IP flows. (PDF)

Experiment: The questionnaire. This file shows the contents of the questionnaire used in this experiment for evaluation. (PDF)

Experiment: The informed consent form. This file shows the contents of the consent form used in this experiment. (PDF)

Ping behaviour. SoNSTAR SYN-Flood-DoS audio file. Sounds of SYN flood attack behaviour for denial of service purposes; performed using hping3. (AIF)

SoNSTAR: Traffic flow log file. Text file consists of traffic flow information. Each row comprises the time window number, the Traffic flow number within the current time window, the host A IP address, host B IP address, then host A port number, host B port number, and then the feature counts sorted in the same sequence as S1 Appendix. (TEXT)

Normal traffic behaviour. SoNSTAR normal events sounds audio file. (AIF)

Xmas behaviour. SoNSTAR heavy Xmas scan audio file. The scan was performed using Nmap. (AIF)

NULL behaviour. SoNSTAR low NULL scan audio file. The scan was performed using hping3. (AIF)

NULL behaviour. SoNSTAR heavy NULL scan audio file. The scan was performed using hping3. (AIF)

SYN behaviour. SoNSTAR heavy full connection SYN scan audio file. The scan was performed using Nmap. (AIF)

Ping behaviour. SoNSTAR Null-DDoS audio file. DDoS (distributed denial of service) using null packet type; performed using hping3. (AIF)

Maintaining situational awareness of what is happening within a network is challenging, not least because the behaviour happens within computers and communications networks, but also because data traffic speeds and volumes are beyond human ability to process. Visualisation is widely used to present information about the dynamics of network traffic...

Graph layout is the process of creating a visual representation of a graph through a node-link diagram. Node-attribute graphs have additional data stored on the nodes which describe certain properties of the nodes called attributes. Typical force-directed representations often produce hairball-like structures that neither aid in understanding the g...

Sonification and audification create auditory displays of datasets. Audification translates data points into digital audio samples and the auditory display's duration is determined by the playback rate. Like audification, auditory graphs maintain the temporal relationships of data while using parameter mappings (typically data-to-frequency) to repr...

Despite it being more than twenty years since the launch of an international conference series dedicated to its study, there is still much debate over what sonification really is, and especially as regards its relationship to music. A layman’s definition of sonification might be that it is the use of non-speech audio to communicate data, the aural...

Communication networks involve the transmission and reception of large volumes of data. Research indicates that network traffic volumes will continue to increase. These traffic volumes will be unprecedented and the behaviour of global information infrastructures when dealing with these data volumes is unknown. It has been shown that complex systems...

In this multidisciplinary proposal, we intend to explore the advantages of an information fusion system in which the information infrastructure finds new ways to reflect upon its own state and new ways to express this state that provides a good fit to human communication and cognition processes. This interplay should then generate a better and more...

In this multi-disciplinary project, we intend to explore the advantages of an information fusion system in which the infrastructure finds new ways to reflect upon its own state and new ways to express this state that provides a good fit to human communication and cognition processes. This interplay should then generate a better and more responsive...

This paper looks at the problem of using sonification to enable network administrators to maintaining situational awareness about their network environment. Network environments generate a lot of data and the need for continuous monitoring means that sonification systems must be designed in such a way as to maximise acceptance while minimising anno...

Communication networks involve the transmission and reception of large volumes of data. Research indicates that network traffic volumes will continue to increase. These traffic volumes will be unprecedented and the behaviour of global information infrastructures when dealing with these data volumes is unknown. It has been shown that complex systems...

This chapter treats computer networks as a cyber warfighting domain in which the maintenance of situational awareness is impaired by increasing traffic volumes and the lack of immediate sensory perception. Sonification (the use of non-speech audio for communicating information) is proposed as a viable means of monitoring a network in real time and...

The role of triage in digital forensics is disputed, with some practitioners questioning its reliability for identifying evidential data. Although successfully implemented in the field of medicine, triage has not established itself to the same degree in digital forensics. This article presents a novel approach to triage for digital forensics. Case-...

In this chapter we are concerned with external auditory representations of programs, also known as program auralization. As program auralization systems tend to use musical representations they are necessarily affected by artistic and aesthetic considerations. Therefore, it is instructive to explore program auralization in the light of aesthetic co...

Early experiments have suggested that program auralization can convey information about program structure [8]. Languages like Pascal contain classes of construct that are similar in nature allowing hierarchical classification of their features. This taxonomy can be reflected in the design of musical signatures which are used within the CAITLIN prog...

Developing countries are fast becoming players in an increasingly interconnected world. Many developing countries are making use of technological solutions to address unique challenges. However, in many cases, this growth is not accompanied with the development of appropriate information infrastructure protection structures. As technological soluti...

In recent years, cloud computing has gained a significant amount of attention by providing more flexible ways to store applications remotely. With software testing continuing to be an important part of the software engineering life cycle, the emergence of software testing in the cloud has the potential to change the way software testing is performe...

We present an extended version of targeted projection pursuit, a high dimensional data exploration tool adapted for producing graph layouts using node-attributes. Attributes are generated based on detected events in the intrusion detection system and firewall logs and how often they occur for each IP address. Edges are the directed links between so...

Motivated by the concerns expressed by many academics over difficulties facing the digital forensic field, user-contributory case-based reasoning (UCCBR); a method for auditing digital forensic investigations is presented. This auditing methodology is not designed to replace a digital forensic practitioner but to aid their investigation process, ac...

A novel concept for approaching digital investigations is presented. User-contributory case-based reasoning (UCCBR) is a method by which previous results from digital forensic (DF) examinations are stored and reused in future investigations. The advantages of a UCCBR system are discussed which include implementing UCCBR as an auditing tool, a metho...

Cancer is one of the biggest killers in the western world; every two minutes someone is diagnosed with cancer in the UK. Personalized treatment of cancer, which simply means selecting a treatment best suited to an individual involving the integration and translation of several new technologies in clinical care of patients. Conventional cancer treat...

A novel concept for improving the trustworthiness of results obtained from digital investigations is presented. Case Based Reasoning Forensic Auditor (CBR-FA) is a method by which results from previous digital forensic examinations are stored and reused to audit current digital forensic investigations. CBR-FA provides a method for evaluating digita...

Object-oriented analysis and design has become a major approach in the design of software systems. Recent developments in CASE tools provide help in documenting the analysis and design stages and in detecting incompleteness and inconsistency in analysis. However, these tools do not contribute to the initial and difficult stage of the analysis proce...

Download from here: http://sonification.de/handbook/index.php/chapters/

Download from here: http://sonification.de/handbook/index.php/chapters/

This paper describes the investigation of the development of future technological products to support older people in everyday living through the agency of a community art group. Recent research has identified a number of challenges facing designers seeking to use traditional participatory design approaches to gather technology requirements data fr...

"How to Think Like a Programmer" is a bright, accessible, fun read describing the mindset and mental methods of programmers. Anticipating the problems that student's have through the character of Brian the Wildebeest, the slower pace required for this approach is made interesting and engaging by visual impact of hand-drawn sketches, frequent (paper...

In this paper we look at some of the design issues that affect the success of multimodal displays that combine acoustic and haptic modalities. First, issues affecting successful sonification design are explored and suggestions are made about how the language of electroacoustic music can assist. Next, haptic interaction is introduced in the light of...

In Aesthetic Computing, key scholars and practitioners from art, design, computer science, and mathematics lay the foundations for a discipline that applies the theory and practice of art to computing. Aesthetic computing explores the way art and aesthetics can play a role in different areas of computer science. One of its goals is to modify comput...

Program auralization aims to communicate information about program state, data, and behavior using audio. We have argued that music offers many advantages as a communication medium [Alty 1995]. The CAITLIN system [Alty and Vickers 1997; Vickers 1999; Vickers and Alty 1996, 1998] was constructed to provide auralizations within a formal structured mu...

In this paper, we reflect upon the investigations into external auditory representations of programs (program auralization) reported by Vickers and Alty at ICAD 2000. First, we place the work in its historical and thematic context and explore the motivation that lay behind it. We then outline the process by which we got to the stage of being able t...

A good deal of attention has been paid by the auditory display community to the sonification of graphical data and the term au-ditory graph has been used to describe this class of auditory map-pings. We contend that definitions have become blurred leading to first-order sonifications of functions and data being treated as synonymous with the second...

In this paper we discuss aesthetic issues of sonifications. We posit that many sonifications have suffered from poor acoustic ecology which makes listening more difficult, thereby resulting in poorer data extraction and inference on the part of the listener. Lessons are drawn from the electro acoustic music community as we argue that it is not inst...

This research emphasizes the construction of feedback pattern. A system called McFeSPA is designed to help inexperienced teaching assistants (TAs). Inexperienced TAs mean novice TAs including novice teachers, novice tutors, and novice lecturers who lack training in how to provide quality feedback. The system employs scaffolding to help the TAs impr...

Technologies like Java 2 Micro Edition and Microsoft’s .NET framework allow applications to be developed and deployed across a range of mobile devices without having to significantly change the source code. However, mobile devices have very different interfaces and capabilities and it is not clear whether these generic deployment technologies adver...

Mobile computing is an area of high growth despite having some serious design issues. It is difficult to increase the size of the screen because of the devices physical constraints. Consequently, as mobile applications have incorporated more functionality, screen clutter has increased. One method of reducing clutter is to remove visual controls and...

This paper provides a summary of previous work done in the area of external auditory representations of programs (known as program auralisation). A brief historical review is given followed by a short summary of the characteristics of the main program auralisation systems that have been reported in the literature. As program auralisation systems te...

ABSTRACT In this paper we describe a final -year undergraduate,honours course that requires multimedia,computing,students to create narrative auditory and,visual displays. The aim,was,to use discontinuity as a catalyst for creativity by getting students to tell a story in non-speech sound and in vision in which each medium conveyed,a different mood...

An evaluation of musical earcons was carried out to see whether they are an effective and efficient method of delivering information about household appliances to elderly people. A test was carried out to explore the ability of the elderly subjects in remembering and learning the musical earcons. This test indicated a poor rate of recognition of th...

Several advantages of music in communicating information about the flow of software programs and assistance in bug identification and eradication are discussed. The two areas where music can be particularly helpful are when the output of the program contain no clues as to the bug's location and when it contains complex Boolean expressions. The musi...

"When you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers, you know that on which you are discoursing; but when you cannot measure, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind: it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of a...

In The Songs of Insects, Pierce (1949) described the striped ground cricket, Nemobius fasciatus-fasciatus, which chirps at a rate proportional to ambient air temperature. Twenty chirps-per-second tell us it is 31.4 °C; 16 chirps and it is 27 °C. This is a natural example of an auditory display, a mechanism for communicating data with sound. By appl...

Advances in processor design, display technology, and lithium polymer batteries have led to a new generation of powerful, compact, and highly mobile devices. There is a range of different physical interfaces available, from the original Palm Pilots and Psion Organisers to the new generation of pocket PCs and personal digital assistants (PDA's). We...

With the introduction of faster wireless networking standards opportunities arise to transport more e-commerce applications to wireless devices (hence, mobile, or m-commerce). The wireless device with which most people are familiar is the mobile phone. It is in the interests of commercial organizations for people to use their phones for m-commerce...