Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

It can be advantageous for mobile applications of audio systems to be lightweight and small. An experiment investigated speech intelligibility for multiple talkers of a stereo presentation and two different 3D audio systems. The 3D audio systems consisted of a relatively small and lightweight Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) display and a professional hardware display considered bulky and heavy. Each of 12 participants listened to one to four call signs combined with two background voices, with the task to identify and localize the voice of each call sign. The results show that the COTS 3D audio as compared to stereo generated a larger amount of complete sets of identified call signs and a larger proportion of identified single call signs in a set. The professional display generated a larger proportion of identified single call signs in a set compared to stereo. These results suggest that 3D audio based on COTS components could be used for increasing intelligibility of radio calls in mobile applications demanding relatively small and lightweight equipment.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Baldis

(2001). Effects of Spatial Audio on Memory, Comprehension, and Preference During Desktop Conferences, Proceedings of CHI 2001 (pp. 166–173), USA: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

Begault

D.R.

(1999). Virtual acoustic display for teleconferencing: Intelligibility advantage for ‘“telephone-grade’” audio. Journal of Audio Engineering Society, vol. 47, no. 10, pp. 824–828.

Begault

D.R.

Wenzel

E.M.

(1993). Headphone localization of speech, Human Factors, vol 35, pp. 361–376.

Brungart

D.A.

Ericson

M.A.

Simpson

B.D.

(2002). Design considerations for improving the effectiveness of multitalker speech displays. In Proceedings of the 2002 International Conference on Auditory Display, 2–5 July, Japan: International Conference on Auditory Displays.

Carlander

Eriksson

Kindström

(2006). Horizontal localisation accuracy with COTS and professional 3D audio display technologies. Proceedings of the IEA 2006 conference, The Netherlands: International Ergonomics Society.

Carlander

Kindström

Eriksson

(2005). Intelligibility of stereo and 3D audio call signs for fire and rescue command operators. In Proceedings of the 11th Meeting of the ICAD, International Conference on Auditory Display, 6–9 July, Ireland: International Conference on Auditory Displays.

Doll

T.J.

Hanna

T.E.

Russotti

J.S.

(1992). Masking in three-dimensional auditory displays, Human Factors, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 255–265.

Drullman

Bronkhorst

A.W.

(2000). Multichannel speech intelligibility and talker recognition using, monaural, binaural and three-dimensional auditory presentation, Journal of Acoustical Society of America, vol. 107, no. 4, pp. 2224–2235.

Ericson

M.A.

Brungart

D.S.

Simpson

B.D.

(2004). Factors that influence intelligibility in multitalker speech displays. The International Journal of Aviation Psychology, 14(3), pp 313–334.

10.

Haas

E.C.

(1998). Utilizing 3-D auditory display to enhance safety in systems with multiple radio communications. In Kumar

(Ed.), Advances in Occupational Ergonomics and Safety. IOS Press, The Netherlands.

11.

Nelson

W.T.

Bolia

R.S.

Ericson

M.A.

McKinley

R.L.

(1998). Monitoring the simultaneous presentation of spatialized speech signals in a virtual acoustic environment. Proceedings of the IMAGE Conference (pp. 159–166), USA: IMAGE Conference.

12.

Shinn-Cunningham

(2001). Creating three dimensions in virtual auditory displays. Proceedings of the HCI International 2001 (pp 604–608), USA: International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction.

13.

Vause

N.L.

Grantham

D.W.

(1998). Speech intelligibility in adverse conditions in recorded virtual auditory environments. Proceedings of ICAD 98, November, UK: International Conference on Auditory Displays.

14.

Wenzel

Arruda

Kistler

D. J.

Wightman

F. L.

(1993). Localization using non-individualized head-related transfer functions. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 94(1), pp. 111–123.

Comparison of Audio Systems for Intelligibility in Multitalker Speech Displays

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References