Cameron Turner on the sound of data

How can sound be used to both generate data and express data? In this episode of the Hardware podcast, we talk with Cameron Turner, co-founder and principal at The Data Guild. Turner is the author of the new O’Reilly report “Finding Profit in Your Organization’s Data: Examples and Best Practices.”

Turner focuses on finding value in data exhaust—data that’s collected without a particular intention. Sound data is a great example of this kind of exhaust; many monitoring systems have microphones, but the data coming from those microphones tends not to get analyzed. With a little processing and machine learning, that audio data can tell useful stories.

During the interview, Turner plays three sound clips for us:

• Audio from a data center that demonstrates data sonification, like a visualization but in sound. A sonification like this could be used to transmit alerts and manage data overload.
• A trackside recording of a Caltrain commuter train, used to analyze neighborhood noise levels and compliance with railroad horn-signalling requirements.
• Sound from an air-conditioning chiller on the verge of “surging,” or overloading. By analyzing these sounds, Turner was able to establish optimal operating conditions for individual chillers in a large installation.

For more on data exhaust, download Cameron Turner’s free report, “Finding Profit in Your Organization’s Data: Examples and Best Practices.”