Sonifying Gait Kinematics Using the Sound of Wading: A Study on Ecological Movement Representations

Interactive sonification of human movement can enhance motor
learning by introducing an additional sensory feedback channel
during rehabilitation. Successful past work on sonifying human
walking has focused primarily on providing users with feedback
on the stance (ground contact) phase of the gait cycle, whilst the
equally important swing phase has been largely neglected. In this
work, we developed and assessed a swing phase sonification algorithm that generates ecological feedback on limb swing in the form
of wading sounds at two different depths. We evaluated the perceptual qualities of the algorithm output in a test with 16 respondents,
as well as the user experience of 9 healthy participants in a reallife walking pilot test. Despite our simple approach of simulating
wading acoustics using gyroscope-modulated liquid sounds, our
results suggested that the simulation sounded perceptually natural, unintrusive during walking, and responded well to limb swing
in real-time. Future work includes further improvements to the
algorithm followed by rigorous user tests with both healthy and
impaired individuals. We believe that this research can contribute
to the development of meaningful auditory feedback schemes targeting limb swing.