Automatically Optimizing Situation Awareness and Sound Quality for an Isolating Earphone

Usher J. Automatically Optimizing Situation Awareness and Sound Quality for an Isolating Earphone. In: AES Convention 129. Audio Engineering Society; 2010. Paper 8291. Available from: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=15713

@inproceedings{Usher2010_15713,
  author = {Usher, John},
  title = {{Automatically Optimizing Situation Awareness and Sound Quality for an Isolating Earphone}},
  booktitle = {AES Convention 129},
  note = {Paper 8291},
  year = {2010},
  month = nov,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  url = {https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=15713}
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Automatically Optimizing Situation Awareness and Sound Quality for an Isolating Earphone
AU  - Usher, John
T2  - AES Convention 129
M1  - Paper 8291
PY  - 2010
DA  - 2010/11/06
UR  - https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=15713
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - Sound isolating (SI) earphones are increasingly used by the general public with portable media players in noisy urban and transport environments. The dangers of these SI earphones are becoming increasingly apparent and legislators are recommending an urgent review of their usage. The problem is that the user is removed from their local ambient scene: a reduction in their “situation awareness” that often leads to accidents involving unheard oncoming vehicles. This paper introduces a new automatic gain control system to automatically mix the ambient sound field with reproduced audio material to maintain a constant SNR and therefore enhance situation awareness. A discussion of the audio system architecture is given and an analysis of 20 different warning sounds is used to suggest suitable parameters.
ER  -