CAN 3D-AUDIO IMPROVE STATE-OF-THE-ART PILOT-ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS?

Abstract

The effort to make flying safer goes parallel with the new possibilities of technology which has been made possible in recent years. With the introduction of new technologies and a variety of new assistance systems in modern flight decks, the demand of safety and efficiency of flight operations are increased. These new cockpit designs and the increasing number of high-resolution displays in the cockpit intensely use the visual system of the pilots. The advantage of these glass cockpits tends to be impaired by constantly increasing amount of information presented. The pilot has to deal with multiple concurrent tasks, all with dominant impact on the pilot's visual perception. The most unused audio channel in modern cockpits provided only simple warning or information sounds. In contrast to an increasing number of synthetic vision and 3D displays, audio contains no spatial information. In our experiment, we tested the ability to localize different spatial audio files, presented via a stereo headset under varying conditions. The results show that participants are able to localize a 3D-audio presentation via a normal stereo headset adequately enough to direct their attention to a specific point. Including the head movement becomes a key feature to create a natural spatial feeling. The results allow the assumption that localization is independent of the hearing. With a preselected assistance system, 3D-audio has the capability to support pilots during critical flight phases and potentially even decreasing the overall workload.