
146 Human factors engineering and ergonomics
6.3 CLASSIC PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
6.3.1 Localization
Auditory displays have some classic problems. First, they are often dicult to
localize. Sometimes localization does not matter, but anyone who has driven
down a city street and wondered whether the emergency vehicle siren was
coming toward them, coming head- on, or crossing a nearby part of town on
a completely dierent road knows the experience. Part of the problem with
localizing sound in an urban environment is that one often does not perceive
the sound coming directly from the source, but from bouncing o walls of
buildings. The bouncing problem ...