Welcome to the S.W.C.

These are projects presented by S.W.C. members. If you have a project you would like to share, please mention it in the SIGN UP page. 

We would love to hear about your project!

PROJECTS

Afterglow Access

Afterglow Access is hosted by IDATA and is a browser-based astronomical image and data analysis software. This software works with screen readers and turns astronomical images into sound. There is a contact form at https://idataproject.org/contact/. 

This image shows Afterglow Access in the process of stacking an image. The image being stacked is a star cluster. The files for stacking are listed on the left and the settings are on the right. This image is mostly decorative rather than informational.

AstreOS

This image mostly serves as decoration. It is a vertical cell phone facing 45 degrees to the right. Surrounding this phone, there are astronomical images in black rectangles the same size as the phone. All of this is placed against a decorative backdrop with graphs and mathematical work. This illustrates the layered multi-sensory experience that users will face using AstreOS, so this is an image that is used to advertise this tool.

AstreOS is hosted by Oseyeris and is a multi sensorial astronomy app using the accelerometer to provide spatially accurate locations of every object in the sky. Move your phone around to target planets, moons, asteroids, comets, constellations, black holes and galaxies where they are currently located in the sky.

Astronify

Astronify is hosted by Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) and is a Python package used to sonify astronomical data. Contact astronify@stsci.edu.

This image shows the first page that users will see when they install Astronify. At the top, it says Astronify, but the O is a closed circle with a horizontal squiggle line fading to the right to music notes. Below, it says that Astronify is a Python package and illustrates the buttons that lead to installation, documentation, and tutorials. This image is predominantly decorative.

Astronomy 4BD

This image is predominantly decorative. It illustrates the symbol for Astronomy4BD, which is a drawing of a short haired individual, from the chin to just before the top of the head, pointing their ear and cuffing the ear with a hand towards many stars growing in size from left to right. Below it says Astronomy 4 the Blind and Disabled. Below it says that this project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union. To the right of this is the European Union flag: a blue rectangle with twelve gold stars forming a circle in the center.

Astronomy4BD is hosted by Erasmus+ and seeks to develop a database of astronomical objects sorted based on characteristics. The database will also convert these images into sound for blind or visually impaired individuals to experience the science and beauty of astronomy. Contact a4bd@a4bd.eu.

Exoplanet Watch

This project is hosted by NASA. It enables average citizens without an astronomy background and education to observe and analyze different exoplanets. These people, then, can publish their data to professional researchers. 

This image is predominantly decorative. It portrays a large circle with a line through the middle and a much smaller circle on the rightmost point of the large circle. Below this symbol, it says Exoplanet Watch. This is the symbol for Exoplanet Watch.

IMAGE

IMAGE is hosted by  McGill University’s Shared Reality Lab and seeks to create a web browser extension that enables users to experience graphics on the web using audio and touch. There is a youtube video introducing this project left of this caption, so it should be on the left side of the screen.

Mid-Air Haptics

This project is hosted by Ultraleap. It works to create programmable touch sensations with ultrasonic waves. This helps create virtual tactile experiences to enhance education, especially for visually impaired individuals. Contact dh256@sussex.ac.uk. 

Multi-Sensory Tour of the Universe/A Dark Tour of the Universe

This project is hosted by ESO. It provides an accessible, tactile astronomy show to assist BVI individuals with learning about the universe. This project uses 3D models of real astronomical datasets. Contact christopher.harrison@newcastle.ac.uk. 

SAS Graphics Accelerator

SAS Graphics Accelerator is hosted by SAS Enterprises an extension on a computer that enhances digital visualizations with text descriptions, tabular data, and interactive sonification. 

SenseMath

SenseMath is hosted by Visio and is an app that converts mathematical formulas, functions, and graphs to sound, so visually impaired individuals can grasp abstract mathematical concepts that tend to be portrayed visually. Contact sensemath@visio.org.

Sensing the Dynamic Universe

Sensing the Dynamic Universe is hosted by SonoUno and seeks to help users sense, understand and appreciate many types of astronomical phenomena, including single stars, binary stars, neutron stars, black holes, supernovae, quasars and more. Contact  sdu@cfa.harvard.edu.

Sonifying Bacterial Chemotaxis

This project is hosted by University of Virginia. It sonifies bacterial chemotaxis. Not only are chemotaxis are hard to interperet visually, but also it is important to sonify biological data to help BVI researchers. 

Sonipy

This is a project that turns scatterplots into sound files to enhance accessibility. Contact lockepatton@cfa.harvard.edu for more information. 

Sonoplanet (Check out LEARN group page)

Sonoplanet is hosted by Sonokids in Australia. The institution creates accessible educational games that teach blind or visually impaired children technological and fundamental skills for interpreting data in the form of sound. For general information, contact phia@sonokids.com.

Sonopy

Sonopy is hosted by Mycroft and is a digital programming library used to sonify data and make calculations of audio signals.

Star Sound

Star Sound is a software tool for the sonification of multidimensional data. Contact: jeff.hannam@rmit.edu.au. 

STRAUSS

STRAUSS is a “sonification toolkit for python” that can be used to sonify data. Contact james.trayford@port.ac.uk.

Accessibility by WAH
en_USEnglish
en_USEnglish