Objective
In modern man-machine interfaces, the amount of visual information presented to the user has increased to such a degree that the limits of the information-processing capacity of the visual channel have been reached: in case of advanced applications or critical situations, this has introduced the risk that the visual channel is often overloaded, which may have important consequences on efficiency and safety. Given the effort spent to optimise visual displays, it is remarkable that relatively little attention has been paid to the auditory channel. In fact, the ergonomics of auditory displays is relatively poor. However the quality of these displays can be substantially improved by using techniques developed within Virtual Acoustics, which is aimed at creating realistic virtual auditory environments using sounds presented through headphones. The most relevant aspect of Virtual Acoustics is 3-dimensional sound presentation, which means creation of virtual sound sources at well-defined positions in the space around the listener. Using 3-D sound within auditory displays allows (1) directional information to be conveyed in order to support situational awareness, (2) identification of signals and voices to be facilitated by assigning them to specific spatial positions, (3) speech intelligibility and signal detection to be improved by spatially separating the sound sources. The techniques for 3-D sound presentation, that are based on accurate simulation of the acoustic effects of the environment (reflections) and of the listener's body, head and ears, have, as yet, been mainly studied in the laboratory: it is in principle possible to simulate any acoustic environment and to create virtual sound sources that can be localised with the same accuracy as actual sources. However implementation of 3-D sound in real-life applications and integration with existing man-machines interfaces will requires a substantial research effort.
The AUDIS partnership aims to conduct the necessary research for the development of a multipurpose auditory display, in order to definitely confirm the interest of 3-D sound as a powerful and flexible man-machine interface in terms of improved comfort and situational awareness for the user, higher intelligibility of communication channels, improved efficiency and reaction face to abnormal situations. In order to reach this goal, the research will cover a number of subjects. First basic aspects of sound generation and auditory symbology will be addressed. This step includes standardization of the methodology for 3-D sound generation, development of a procedure for individual adaptation to the user, simulation of (head) movements of the user and movements of sound sources, and design of suitable auditory signals. Secondly aspects related to multichannel sound presentation will be investigated. These entail development of basic techniques for creating multiple-sound environments, evaluation of multichannel communication using 3-D sound, and study of guidance of attention by auditory signals. Third, the effectiveness of the auditory display in the chosen application domains will be tested by performing several flight simulator and car experiments. This work will consist of a representative evaluation and validation in terms of realism of the virtual audio "reality", accuracy of the spatial localization and also performance assessment of the auditory perspective in terms of efficiency and acceptance with regard to "classical" audio and visual interfaces. Such applications allow to exhaustively analyse the contribution of 3-D hearing to the improvement of the auditory component in man-machines interfaces. In parallel to the research activities, a prototype of a multipurpose generate of 3-D auditory display will be designed and constructed. It will incorporate the techniques and knowledge developed within the project and will be considered as a realistic device with regard to future products intended for advanced man-machine interfaces. This system will be able not only to demonstrate, in a final session, the properties and advantages of 3-D sound, but also to prove a technical know-how in terms of system flexibility and modularity with regard to the type of target applications.
Indeed, the variety of applications of 3-D sound, that include not only virtual acoustics and man-machine interfaces, but also automotive, simulation, telecommunication, music reproduction and entertainment, underline the importance of a concerted European research effort at this moment. In view of the number of applications, there are many opportunities for a fruitful exploitation of the research performed within the project.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
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Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
78141 Velizy-Villacoublay
France