Most earthquake apps will show you a map with a bunch of dots. QuakeSound takes those red dots and turns them into sound. That’s right QuakeSound is an earthquake map that actually lets you listen to the planet rumble in near real time.
QuakeSound takes data from the USGS Earthquake GeoJSON Feed and represents it in two ways: visually, on an interactive Leaflet.js map, and aurally, via the Web Audio API. On the map each earthquake becomes a musical note whose pitch corresponds to its magnitude - higher quakes have higher tones - while the note’s length is tied to its depth, with shallow tremors lingering longer in the ear. The result is a strangely meditative yet subtly urgent auditory portrait of global tectonics.
The app offers two modes of listening. Real-Time Mode captures quakes from the past hour, playing their tones as they arrive. It’s a bit like tuning in to a planetary heartbeat monitor. Soundscape Mode, on the other hand, sequences all the quakes from the past day into a looping composition, creating an ambient, evolving soundtrack that’s equal parts relaxing and eerie.
I think QuakeSound could be the first real mapped data sonification I've seen. While QuakeSound focuses on earthquakes, the underlying principle of mapped data sonification opens the door to countless other possibilities. Imagine using sound to track bird migration patterns, with pitch representing altitude and rhythm reflecting speed. Or turning global shipping traffic into a symphony, where each vessel’s movement contributes to a constantly shifting score.
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий