Earcon

An earcon is a brief, distinctive sound that represents a specific event or conveys other information. Earcons are a common feature of computer operating systems and applications, ranging from a simple beep to indicate an error, to the customizable sound schemes of modern operating systems that indicate startup, shutdown, and other events. An earcon is a brief, distinctive sound that represents a specific event or conveys other information. Earcons are a common feature of computer operating systems and applications, ranging from a simple beep to indicate an error, to the customizable sound schemes of modern operating systems that indicate startup, shutdown, and other events. The name is a pun on the more familiar term icon in computer interfaces. Icon sounds like 'eye-con' and is visual, which inspired D.A. Sumikawa to coin 'earcon' as the auditory equivalent in a 1985 article, 'Guidelines for the integration of audio cues into computer user interfaces.'