Re: Pitch/Loudness Discrimination for alerting schemes

[Patrick Flanagan <patrick@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I don't have an answer, but I do have suggestion.

Consider using virtual acoustics to spatialize the different signals/ alert
tones/ communication channels over headphones. This allows critical
information to be discerened quickly from the background or non critical
communications.

Alot of work has been done in this area (mutichannel communications
perception) by Durand Begault at NASA
http://vision.arc.nasa.gov/HST/Brief/Auditory.S.T./Multiple.S.html

Well worth checking out.

Best regards,
Patrick Flanagan
Systems Engineer
Lake DSP
www.lakedsp.com

> Hello all,
I have a quick question and I hope someone can provide some insight or point
me in the right direction.  I am currently working at Honeywell and am
involved in a project where we are looking at various alerting schemes for
the flightdeck of the future business jet.

Certainly aural alerts will be one component of the alerting scheme that is
developed.  Undoubtedly aural signals that are used will vary in terms of
their pitch and their loudness.  So...this leads me to my question.  What
are our discrimination abilities for signals of different loudness levels
and pitches.  That is,  how many different pitch levels can humans
discriminate and how many different loudness levels can we discriminate?

Any help anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in
advance.

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