The Sonification of Heart Rate Variability

Sound examples of Heart Rate Variability Data sonified with SuperCollider

These examples have been created as part of my bachelor's thesis. Heart rate data of two individuals was collected during asynchronous and synchronous tasks such as exercise or paced breathing.

The Heart Rate Variability data (RR-intervals) was z-transformed for each participant and differences within the dyad were computed. These RR-differences, as well as the differences in RMSSDs and High Frequency Heart Rate Variability were transformed into frequencies and sonified using SuperCollider. The sounds were recorded using Audacity and uploaded here as examples for the results of the sonification process used during my thesis.

If you have any questions regarding the pre-processing of the data, the sonification with SuperCollider or the design of the experiment, please let me know (you can go to my github page and send me a message)! Ideas for improvements and future research are highly appreciated as well! I will do my best to upload the code and more details about the thesis as soon as it is done and graded.

For now, you can listen to some HRV-music!

Examples from the Synchronous Exercise Condition

R1 R4 R5

Examples from the Asynchronous Condition

R1 R2 R5

Some more sonifications just for fun!

The following are not part of my thesis (because I found this program the day before I turned in my thesis), but other fun sonifications I made with TwoTone.

The second asynchronous example played by a church organ

The second synchronous example played by a violin

The second synchronous example played by two pianos (one for each person in the dyad)

Be aware that these are just the raw RR-interval data streams that have not been z-transformed yet.