An image sonification must decide where scanning begins, how long it takes and
which pixels deserve sound. We compare row, column and radial paths while
keeping a tactile or tabular alternative available.
Image pixels → choose scan path → map horizontal position to stereo, energy
band to timbre and brightness to level → announce scan progress. The route
through the image constructs time that the original image did not have.
Chandra’s Deep Field sonification
documents how colour, brightness and horizontal position are assigned to
auditory features.
Observation guide 07
Spatial scan
Use this page before the slides, then return to the checkpoint after the lab.
After this week, you can
Explain how a scan path turns image space into playback time.
Keep location, intensity and energy band in separable sound dimensions.
Write a structured image description that survives without audio.
Inspectable teaching model
pixel brightness
0.080.120.170.720.300.180.810.15
Synthetic brightness samples encountered during a left-to-right row scan. Values are a teaching model, not an astronomical observation.
Worked notebook
One image, three possible routes
Synthetic brightness samples encountered during a left-to-right row scan.
State the scan origin, direction and total duration.
Map horizontal position to playback time without changing the order.
Map brightness to level and reserve timbre for energy band.
Test whether a listener can locate both bright regions and identify the end.
What the method supportsThe scan reveals two bright regions along one row. It says nothing about pixels above or below that route, so the interface must expose the chosen path.
CheckpointWhy can a radial scan and a row scan of the same image support different interpretations even when every pixel is included?Reveal the reasoning
They impose different temporal neighbourhoods on the pixels.
An image has spatial adjacency but no playback order. Each scan path decides which pixels arrive together and which become distant in time, changing the patterns a listener can compare.