Exploring the use of 3D-sound awareness as a city safety system in cars
My master thesis aimed at exploring the possibilities of using 3D-sound awareness in cars. Car manufacturers continuously work on making the in-car compartment more quieter. This can create a decrease of traffic awareness which can be hazardous for traffic safety. An information system for presenting vehicles and persons around you in city traffic is suggested to enhance the traffic awareness. Since traffic information today mainly is presented visually and auditory sense is only used for warnings, there is a great potential to create an auditory system to enhance the traffic awareness. To investigate the possibilities for such a system we developed three types of sounds and tested the sound perception ability of the sounds through a set of user tests. The most successful sounds where chosen to further test the system in a car simulator to examine the acceptance of such a system. Naturalistic sounds and naturalistic sounds which where enhanced through sound manipulation where found to work better than synthetic sounds with corresponding characteristics with the original object. The perception of direction and movement did not seem to differ substantially between the different types of sounds. The simulator test showed great acceptance for the proposed system and showed potential in the use of auditory information systems in cars. Further research should focus on more realistic user tests, prioritizing objects which are displayed and investigate how many objects that can be displayed at the same time with maintained awareness.
