ABSTRACT
Virtual or three-dimensional (3-D) audio display technology has advanced to a form suitable for flight demonstrations. Three-dimensional audio display systems have the capability of synthesizing signals presented over head phones that give the user the illusion that the sound is emanating from some external location. The development of this technology its applications, and its performance in both laboratory and flight test situations are presented. Potential fighter aircraft applications include threat location warning, wingman location indication, spatially separated multi-channel communications, and audio target-location indication. The laboratory performance data show an average localization error in azimuth of approximately 5°, a minimum audible angle of approximately 5°, and a speech intelligibility improvement of up to 28%. Flight demonstration results show successful audio-cued target acquisition, a subjective decrease in target acquisition times, a subjective improvement in speech intelligibility, a subjective increase in situational awareness, and a subjective decrease in pilot workload. A summary of both laboratory and flight demonstration results is presented in addition to recommendations for future research.
