HearIt: Auditory-Cue-Based Audio Playback Control to Facilitate Information Browsing in Lecture Audio

Abstract

Students often utilize audio media during online or offline courses. However, lecture audio data are mostly unstructured and extensive, so they are more challenging in information browsing (i.e., chaining, linking, extraction, and evaluation of relevant information). Conventional time-level skip control is limited in auditory information browsing because it is hard to identify the current position and context. This paper presents HearIt, which provides semantic-level skip control with auditory cues for auditory information browsing. With HearIt, users can efficiently change the playback position in the paragraph-level. Furthermore, two auditory cues (positional cue and topical cue) help grasp the current playback and its context without additional visual support. We conducted a pilot study with the prototype of HearIt, and the results show its feasibility and design implications for future research.