Three-Dimensional Auditory Localization as a Cue for Spatial Orientation inAircraft

摘要

The use of technology which provides spatially localizable auditory cues throughheadphones is proposed as a means of providing supplemental information to pilots on the spatial orientation of an aircraft. This technique shows promise for reducing accidents due to spatial disorientation associated with high visual load. An Auditory Head up Display (HUD) was developed that provides realtime aircraft pitch and roll indications in the form of spatially localized auditory tones. Three studies were conducted using U. S. Air Force pilots as subjects to determine its utility. The first study examined cue characteristics for optimizing vertical localization of auditory cues and successfully identified multidimensional cueing techniques that significantly improved localization performance. In the second study it was found that the addition of Auditory HUD information improved performance in a flight management task but not in a secondary visual search task. In the third study, the cues were employed in a recovery from unusual attitude task in a T-38 training simulator, however, no improvement in time to recover was found. Subjective data indicates that mentally processing the auditory cues is fairly demanding for subjects but was deemed useful. Implications for the use of three dimensional auditory cues in aircraft tasks and further research needs are discussed.