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The Importance and Creation of High-Quality Sounds in Healthcare Applications

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Virtual, Augmented Reality and Serious Games for Healthcare 1

Part of the book series: Intelligent Systems Reference Library ((ISRL,volume 68))

Abstract

In this chapter we look at Audio, a key aspect of virtual and augmented realities that, because of the dominance of the visual sense, is often overlooked in the creation of healthcare and other applications. Audio design and implementation is often under budgeted and considered at a late stage in many projects. This chapter seeks to raise awareness for the importance of high-quality audio in healthcare applications and describes the process of creating quality sound recordings. By way of an example, we describe research that uses nature sounds in conjunction with virtual environments for the purpose of managing stress, pain and other illnesses. We show how noise and distortions can have adverse effects on patient recovery and then describe how to avoid common mistakes in the recording of sounds. We discuss the equipment and workflow that is needed for the production of high-quality sound recordings for use in contemporary healthcare applications.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The ORTF technique was named after the French television and radio commission who invented it (Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française).

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Jayshree Mamtora for her outstanding support with article acquisition.

Disclaimer The authors are not affiliated or sponsored by any of the hardware and software manufacturers mentioned in this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wild Eden Nature Sounds, Adelaide, Australia

    Eric Fassbender

  2. University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, QLD, Australia

    Christian Martyn Jones

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  1. Eric Fassbender
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Correspondence to Eric Fassbender .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Digital Design Studio, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, United Kingdom

    Minhua Ma

  2. Faculty of Education, Science, Technology & Mathematics, University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia

    Lakhmi C. Jain

  3. Digital Design Studio, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, United Kingdom

    Paul Anderson

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Fassbender, E., Jones, C.M. (2014). The Importance and Creation of High-Quality Sounds in Healthcare Applications. In: Ma, M., Jain, L., Anderson, P. (eds) Virtual, Augmented Reality and Serious Games for Healthcare 1. Intelligent Systems Reference Library, vol 68. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54816-1_26

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54816-1_26

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-54815-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-54816-1

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