Interactive Sonification [Guest editors´ introduction]

Today´s computing technology is radically different from that of 10 years ago. Devices such as smartphones, tablets, and even wearable devices are found wherever we are. Researchers and developers can take advantage of this new era by knowing that the public has personal access to highly interactive multimedia devices. Interfaces involving sound are already in the hands of millions of people. For information display, sound promises an alternative to squeezing information through small screens that then force us to attend to them, thus making us lose awareness of our immediate environment. This special issue looks at some of the upcoming research on how such interaction with sound can be used in a variety of areas and applications.