Human-Machine Interfaces
Abstract
The normal human auditory system suffers from many deficiencies in its ability to localize sound sources in space. Not only is it generally poor at determining the elevation and distance of a sound source, but in certain cases it is relatively poor at determining the azimuth of the source. The research discussed in this report is concerned with the development and evaluation of systems that result in improved localization, i.e., in supernormal auditory localization, by altering the localization cues that are available to the listener. Although such enhanced performance should be of value in essentially all systems that make use of auditory localization for conveying information to the human user, the application area of primary interest in this proposal is that of human-machine interfaces for teleoperator and virtual systems. In general, localization performance can be summarized in terms of (1) resolution and (2) response bias. Resolution refers to the ability to detect small changes in the spatial position of a sound source and to separate out multiple sources located at different positions, as well as to the amount of information transfer that can be achieved in the identification of source position. Response bias refers to the average differences between perceived source position (as measured by the mean of the listener's objective responses) and the actual source position.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 31, 1993
- Accession Number
- ADA270730
Entities
People
- Nathaniel Durlach
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology