Socio-ec(h)o: Focus, listening and collaboration in the experience of ambient intelligent environments

In this paper, we aim to conceptualize the connection between embodied interactions and the experience of understanding a dynamic auditory display response. We have termed this concept aural fluency and hereby continue previous work documenting in more detail the listening patterns that emerge in users’ experiences with ambient intelligent environments. Aural fluency describes the acquired listening competency and focus on sonic feedback that users form over time in systems utilizing responsive ambient audio display and collaborative embodied interaction. We describe listening positions that characterize the concept and show the stages of aural fluency. The concept arose from the design, analysis and evaluation of an embedded interaction system named socio-ec(h)o – a project upon which we also build on from previous work in the hopes of elucidating further the complex experiences of listening attentions and thus offer insights to the field of auditory displays.