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Software engineers have figured out how to turn charts into music for the blind

49 points| wallflower | 9 years ago |qz.com | reply

12 comments

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[+] tcrews|9 years ago|reply
The title is very clickbaity. Just search for "chart sonification" and see there is a lot of research in this area. Maybe they meant to emphasize that this is a browser extension?
[+] 10dpd|9 years ago|reply
Agreed - this idea has been around since 1914.
[+] owlninja|9 years ago|reply
This HN thread is the third result already o_O
[+] neilcrj|9 years ago|reply
This is the problem Richard MacDuff was wrestling with at the beginning of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. I love it when sci-fi from my childhood becomes reality.
[+] fhood|9 years ago|reply
Thank you for reminding me that that book exists. It's been a few years since I last re-read it.
[+] prefect42|9 years ago|reply
Oddly enough, that was the first thing that popped into my head, when seeing the title.
[+] Mizza|9 years ago|reply
At Science Hack Day, me and some friends built a version of Super Mario for the Blind that you can play in a similar way:

Play: http://gleitzman.com:1339/

Source: https://github.com/miserlou/jsnes

After a few tries, you can actually get through the first few levels!

[+] gtirloni|9 years ago|reply
It's an interesting idea! How does one know what each sound represents?
[+] obstbraende|9 years ago|reply
it doesn't seem to register key presses on chrome 56 (mac os)
[+] andrewclunn|9 years ago|reply
I'm holding out for the pie charts that are tasty, relationship charts that make it through the tough times, and line charts that get me high as fuck!
[+] ge96|9 years ago|reply
Didn't this lady do this who is an astrophysicist (also blind)

something about gamma ray burst (heard it on NPR podcast)