Three-dimensional audio versus head-down traffic alert and collision avoidance system displays.
The advantage of a head-up auditory display for situational awareness was evaluated in an experiment designed to measure and compare the acquisition time for capturing visual targets under two conditions:  standard head-down Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System display and three-dimensional (3-D) audio Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System presentation.  (The technology used for 3-D audio presentation allows a stereo headphone user to potentially localize a sound at any externalized position in 3-D auditory space).  Ten commercial airline crews were tested under full-mission simulation conditions at the NASA-Ames Crew-Vehicle Systems Research Facility Advanced Concepts Flight Simulator.  Scenario software generated targets corresponding to aircraft that activated a 3-D aural advisory (the head-up auditory condition) or a standard, visual-audio TCAS advisory (map display with monaural audio alert).  Results showed a significant difference in target acquisition time between the two conditions, favoring the 3-D audio Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System condition by 500 ms.
Begault
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San Jose State University Foundation, NASA-Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA.
Pittman
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MT
D000060:Accidents, Aviation / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000337:Aerospace Medicine; D000401:Aircraft / Q000295:instrumentation; D001307:Auditory Perception; D001359:Aviation / Q000193:education / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003626:Data Display; D004867:Equipment Design; D006804:Ergonomics; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D012449:Safety; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D014796:Visual Perception