SPARG - Staff Contacts - Dr Peter Lennox

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	dfgdfgdf	Areas of Interest Auditory and multi-modal spatial perception. Artificial environments
Lennox, Dr. Peter Group Director, SPARG +44 (0)1332 591775 p.lennox@derby.ac.uk

Objectives and Interests :
*Current* “Intelligent Environments” –Is intelligence embodied in things or emergent in whole systems? What would it take to make a local environment react to its occupants appropriately, with proper anticipation and intelligently guided action? I pursue this question from a number of perspectives: Auditory Spatial Perception: “What” and “Where” in “3-D” environments, real and artificial. The problems of real perception in artificial environments are in some way reciprocal of the problems of artificial perception –sometimes called “artificial intelligence”- in real environments. Can we assume that spatial perception in humans relies in any way on the accurate apprehension of “objective” spatial parameters via symmetric sensory representation, and that “meaning” is subsequently supplied by individuals’ higher-order cognition, or is meaning available rather more directly? Does our sense of space result from our interactions with the world around us, or do our interactions with the world result from our having this sense of space? These questions have direct relevance to our methods of representing, using signal-processing methods, environments which feature spatially parsed information displays. Is there “syntax” of spatial perception? – If so, is it significantly different in artificial (as against real) environments? Are aesthetic judgements really luxury items, or the fundamental building blocks of perception? Perception: synthetic or analytic? Do we apprehend what simply is, or do we project our needs and fears onto the world around us? Do we ever actually perceive only that which is absolutely real, entirely uncontaminated by imaginary qualities? – Do we react to the past, the present, or the future? Multi-modal perceptual issues - Multimodal and unimodal perception are they qualitatively different? Is a self-contained model of auditory perception viable, or is single-sense perception the special case? Considering perception in the light of individual sensory modes is somewhat artificial. There is no evidence to support the notion that individual sensory modes evolved separately, or even work effectively independently. It seems to me that there is no independent entity such as “auditory spatial perception”, though there is “auditory sensation” Unfortunately, the legacy paradigm we have to work with in artificial environments means that we must produce sensory displays independently, in the hope that appropriate perceptions will result. There is a growing recognition in various disciplines that information received via one particular sensory mode has profound consequences for other sensory modes – at even quite peripheral levels. Therefore, considering perception “atomistically” (built up out of small units whose properties define the larger structure) can be complemented by holistic perspectives, taking a perceiver and the environment as a coupled system. This has far-ranging consequences for the ways we apprehend, store and manipulate data about the perceptual attributes of artificial environments, and in a more obvious practical application, the structure of computers used for those tasks (which means virtually all computers with human user interfaces). Eventually, “multi-media” and “multi-modal” should be equivalent. Perception: Art, Science and Illusion Study of human ‘knowing’ can (broadly) take either of two perspectives: what we can say about human perception scientifically, and what we can say (and do) artistically. These approaches sometimes seem oddly irreconcilable. Illusions and their study offer the bridge between worlds; recording and producing artificial environments really means producing “accurate illusions”, balancing subjective and objective concerns. *Future* I pursue the questions of perception at a variety of scales and contexts, some in a wider sense than laboratory circumstances; e.g. in real environments. I would like to work on questions such as: Aesthetics, attention and perception; are they entangled? Does territoriality underpin spatial perception (is spatial perception actually territory-perception)? Philosophies of perception; for instance, can the signal-processing, bottom-up sensory models of perception be reconciled with top-down, schema-driven ones? Are Ecological and Cognitive approaches to perception necessarily incommensurate? Do cognitive spatial mapping and causal mapping overlap? I would also like to examine whether “what?” and “where?” and “how?” are the primary questions asked by spatial perception, and whether these are implemented in sense-specific ways. I’m interested in the extent to which spatial perception can be improved through learning. Personal experience leads me to expect significant improvements in some learners. In this case, perhaps artificial spatial environments could be used to enhance learning. I would like to develop applications of artificial environments for a wide variety of sensory and/or cognitively impaired users. Such applications, intended to improve the quality of perception in particular circumstances, can also provide improvements of experience in mainstream usages.

Publications:
Conference contributions 3D Audio as an Information Environment: Manipulating Perceptual significance For Differentiation and Pre-Selection: Lennox, P. Myatt, A. and Vaughan, J. Presented at the Seventh International Conference on Auditory Display. Helsinki University of Technology, Finland 29th of July - 1st of August 2001. 3D Audio as an Information Environment: Lennox, P. Myatt, A. and Vaughan, J. Presented at the AES 19th International Conference on Surround Sound Techniques, Technology and Perception, Schloss Elmau, Germany, 21-24 June 2001. From Surround-sound To ‘True 3-D’: Lennox, P. Myatt, A. and Vaughan, J. AES 16th International Conference on Spatial Sound Reproduction. Rovaniemi, Finland, 1999 Other publications] Doctoral Thesis: “Philosophy of Perception in Artificial Auditory Environments: Spatial Sound and Music.” October 2004. University of York Supervisor: Dr. A Myatt Other public output (reports, exhibitions) Wiggins, B., Lennox, P., Hawkins, S. Worm - Real-time 32 speaker 1st and 2nd order Ambisonic installation demonstration, Maxis festival, 2002. Wiggins, B., Lennox P., Flat Worm – 2.5D. 12 speaker 1st and 2nd order Ambisonic installation demonstration, Maxis festival, 2003. Lennox, P. Electroacoustic music and Digital Arts festivals: “Lovebytes” (1, 2 and 3) Lennox, P., Vaughan, J. Surround-sound Dance Events in York, Derby, Leeds, Wakefield, Sheffield - Ambisonix (1, 2, 3, 4, 5.) Lennox, P. Soundscape displays and installations: Drift festival (Glasgow), York Arts Centre, Workstation Sheffield. Professional Membership Professional Memberships Member of the Board of Directors of the UK and Ireland Soundscape Community (UKISC)