Spatial localization with only auditory cues: a preliminary study

Abstract

This experiment investigates source point localization using only auditory cues. The idea is to determine how well humans can localize and reason about space using only sound cues, and to determine how different sound cues effect performance in such tasks. The findings from this line of research can be used in enhancing audio in virtual environments. This abstract presents first steps in this direction. The task we study here is: given a point in space near the user plus a sound cue that is modulated by the distance between the users hand and point, how well (quickly) can the user locate the point.