[corn-you-copia] FW: [leadership] Eclipse Soundscapes Website
- From: <hap@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <corn-you-copia@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2017 05:43:52 -0500
*Thanks to Camille F. for this interesting email. Those folks in southern
Illinois will get a full effect from the August 21 solar eclipse; we here in
the Chicago area some 300 miles north won’t.*
Subject: FW: [leadership] Eclipse Soundscapes Website
From: Steve Dresser via leadership [mailto:leadership@xxxxxxxxxxxx] ;
Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2017 8:03 AM
To: ACB Leadership <leadership@xxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:leadership@xxxxxxxxxxxx> >
Subject: [leadership] Eclipse Soundscapes Website
Here’s an overview. Check out the website at
http://www.eclipsesoundscapes.org ;
<https://mandrillapp.com/track/click/30489975/www.eclipsesoundscapes.org?p=eyJzIjoiOHkwbjRPUjlteHZlWnVsVmFPUHI0TlZKLUlrIiwidiI6MSwicCI6IntcInVcIjozMDQ4OTk3NSxcInZcIjoxLFwidXJsXCI6XCJodHRwOlxcXC9cXFwvd3d3LmVjbGlwc2Vzb3VuZHNjYXBlcy5vcmdcIixcImlkXCI6XCI1MWU2N2ZkYjkzMmQ0NDlhYWJlZTNkMGJjYzE4MTIxYlwiLFwidXJsX2lkc1wiOltcImExZGZiNDE0MDZmMzUxOTc4ZmU2ZDk1OWExZWUyMDUzNjM3MGI5MWZcIl19In0>
On August 21, 2017, millions of people will view a total solar eclipse as it
passes through the United States. However, for the visually impaired, or others
who are unable to see the eclipse with their own eyes, the Eclipse Soundscapes
Project delivers a multisensory experience of this exciting celestial event.
The project, from NASA’s Heliophysics Education Consortium, will include audio
descriptions of the eclipse in real time, recordings of the changing
environmental
sounds during the eclipse, and an interactive “rumble map” app that will allow
users to visualize the eclipse through touch.
PROJECT ORIGINS
The idea for Eclipse Soundscapes came from Dr. Henry “Trae” Winter, a solar
astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian CfA with a penchant for scientific
engagement projects. Winter noticed a deficit in accessibility while building a
solar wall exhibits for museums. He observed that some “accessible” exhibits
merely included the item’s name in braille, while other exhibits — including
his own — had no accessibility component at all. Winter began to brainstorm
an astrophysics project that would use a multisensory approach to engage a
larger percentage of the population, including the visually impaired community.
The “Great American Eclipse” of August 2017 seemed like the perfect opportunity.
HEAR TOTALITY
For individuals who cannot see, hearing is an ideal way to experience the
eclipse, since soundscapes change dramatically as the Moon passes between the
Earth and Sun. Due to the change in light, nocturnal animals stir into action,
while diurnal animals settle. As the Sun’s light re-emerges, it often triggers
a “false dawn chorus.”
Eclipse Soundscapes is working with organizations such as the National Park
Service (NPS), Science Friday, and Brigham Young University, Idaho, to record
these auditory fluctuations. Many of these recordings will use microphone
arrays that simulate human hearing, creating a sensation of 3D sound for
listeners.
Of course, these recordings will not be available until after the eclipse, but
visually impaired individuals can enjoy the August 21 event with the Eclipse
Soundscapes app, which will include a narration of the eclipse’s progression in
real time using specialized imagery description techniques developed by
WGBH’s National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM). Eclipse Soundscapes’ app
will geolocate the user and start the narration to align with the planetary
movements as they occur.
TOUCH THE SUN
The Eclipse Soundscapes’ app also features an interactive “rumble map,” which
uses a smartphone’s touch screen and vibrational feedback to demonstrate
the physical qualities of an eclipse. The rumble map displays photos of the
eclipse at various stages. When users touch the image, the app reads the
greyscale
value of a pixel underneath their finger, and vibrates the phone with a
strength relative to the brightness of the section. As users move their fingers
around the Sun, their smartphone will vibrate more. As they move their fingers
into the dark spaces blocked by the Moon, the vibration will diminish and
disappear.
BEYOND AUGUST
With these tools, the Eclipse Soundscapes team hopes to provide visually
impaired individuals with a variety of resources to explore the eclipse on their
own — and maybe even learn something that their sighted peers could not through
visuals alone.
Although the August 21 eclipse will only last for a few hours from beginning to
end, the information collected through the Eclipse Soundscapes app will
live on as an open source primary documentation of this historic event, and as
a model for making science accessible for all. The team aims to continue
their efforts for upcoming total solar eclipses, including one in Chile in
2019, and another that will visit the central United States in April 2024.
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