Astronomical images sonification: inclusion or outreach? (2402.00952v1)

Abstract: The field of sonification, using of non-speech audio for data analysis, is already established in space sciences. Meetings like "The audible Universe" focus on sonification tools applied in astronomy to represent complex data like nebulae and galaxies. Besides, little is said about the translation of images into sound, this challenge that seeks to represent data in 2 or 3 dimensions through a one-dimensional technique. The aforementioned leads to a total lack of consensus regarding the sound parameters to be used and how these are interpreted by people. This work seeks to delve deeper into the existing tools for image sonification, analyzing whether their objective is only outreach or includes the possibility of research. A new proposal is presented, maintaining sonoUno's software focus on research, pointing out the need for reliable techniques that integrate functional diversity people with an active role on research.