From: malcolm@interval.com (Malcolm Slaney)
Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 11:02:41 -0700
Subject: Binaural Intelligibility at CCRMA
Message-Id: <abcad06e1602100480cc@[199.170.108.19]>

One more good talk on binaural sound at CCRMA!  This time we'll be
discussing whether binaural sound can be useful.  Will a binaural system
help make sounds more intelligible?  If you can place a virtual speaker at
an arbitrary point in space, can you make the speaker more intelligible?
Is this binaural stuff really good for something? :-)

This coming Thursday, Durand Begault will be talking about his work on 3-D
sound and communications systems.  He's been active in the Hearing Seminar
for the last couple of years.  Stop by to hear about his work.

        Who:    Durand Begault (NASA Ames)
        What:   3-D Sound and Communications Systems
        When:   Thursday, May 4 at 11AM
        Where:  CCRMA Library (Top Floor of the Knoll)

Note, there is no Hearing Seminar next week (due to ICASSP and the CCRMA
Affiliates meeting).  The following week, we'll have two distinguished
visitors discussing their work.  More details to follow via email.

-- Malcolm

P.S.  One bit of information to follow up the Crystal River presentation a
couple of weeks ago.  Check out their web page at
        http://www.cre.com/cre/
for more information about their binaural products.


Subject:        3-D Sound and Communications Systems

Speaker:        Durand R. Begault

(Repeat of 4.18 talk given at AES SF chapter meeting, Dolby Labs)


For communication systems where more than one channel must be
rendered intelligible, such as used in police-fire-rescue,
aeronautics, and teleconferencing, the advantage of spatial
separation has been well-known for some time.  The use of a
customized virtual acoustic (3-D audio) display prototype to
accomplish this spatial separation for a stereo headphone user
has been investigated by the author; the technique is to
separate multiple communication channels by placing each at a
unique virtual audio position. Speech intelligibility  using
the prototype spatial auditory display was evaluated using the
method specified by ANSI (S3.2-1989).  Ten subjects were
evaluated with stimuli either unfiltered or low-pass filtered
at 4 kHz.  Results show virtual acoustic techniques are advantageous
for both full-bandwidth (44.1 kHz rate) and low (8 kHz rate)
bandwidth "telephone-grade" teleconferencing systems. This
talk will encompass the material of papers given at AES conventions
in NY (1993) and Paris (1995).

Durand R. Begault Ph.D. has been a visiting researcher with
the Flight Management Human Factors Research Division of NASA
Ames Research Center since 1988. His work has included basic and
applied research into sound localization, room modeling
(auralization), and speech intelligibility, as they relate to
the development of 3-D audio systems. He holds two US patents
related to 3-D sound, and has several recent publications in the
Audio Engineering Society and Human Factors Society journals.
His book, "3-D Sound for Virtual Reality and Multimedia" was
recently published by Academic Press.

Durand Begault Ph.D.
MS 262-2 Room 130
NASA Ames Research Center
Moffett Field CA 94035-1000
415 604 3920 FAX 415 604 3323