@inproceedings{10.1145/3772363.3799034,
author = {Zhengqi Huang, Jeremy and Hicks, Emani and Sidharth and Hayes, Gillian R and Jain, Dhruv},
title = {Sona: Towards Context-Aware, Real-Time Personalization of Acoustic Environments for Noise Sensitivity},
year = {2026},
isbn = {9798400722813},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3772363.3799034},
doi = {10.1145/3772363.3799034},
abstract = {For people with noise sensitivity, everyday soundscapes can be overwhelming. Existing noise-management tools, such as active noise cancellation, typically apply broad suppression across the entire environment, easing discomfort at the expense of situational awareness and participation. We present Sona, a system that reframes acoustic accessibility as selective, user-steerable soundscape mediation, attenuating triggering sounds while preserving other ambient sounds users may want to hear. Sona combines real-time acoustic context sensing to reduce interaction effort during moments of overload, steerable suppression that supports continuous negotiation between comfort and environmental awareness, and end-user personalization that extends filtering beyond fixed sound taxonomies using short recordings from users’ own environments. We describe Sona’s prototype implementation and derive design implications for supporting customizable, context-aware soundscape mediation for people with noise sensitivity.},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
articleno = {607},
numpages = {6},
keywords = {Noise sensitivity, acoustic accessibility, soundscape personalization, selective sound suppression, interactive audio systems, assistive technology, human-AI interaction},
location = {
},
series = {CHI EA '26}
}