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From: rob@kaa.eng.ohio-state.edu (Rob Carriere)
Newsgroups: comp.dsp
Subject: Re: Psychoacoustics
Message-ID: <3506@quanta.eng.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 13 Nov 89 22:17:52 GMT
References: <1989Oct31.193130.1685@eddie.mit.edu> <1989Nov2.180644.28647@sj.ate.slb.com> <13729@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>
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Reply-To: rob@kaa.eng.ohio-state.edu (Rob Carriere)
Organization: Ohio State Univ, College of Engineering
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In article <13729@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> pvo3366@sapphire.OCE.ORST.EDU (Paul
O'Neill) writes: 
>Our ears have a different frequency response at different azimuths and 
>elevations.  We use the frequency content of arriving sounds as one of
>our localization inputs.
>
>Demonstration:  Plug one ear with your hand.  Close your eyes.  Click
>the fingernails of your thumb and forefinger on the other hand at 
>various positions around your other ear.  Can you localize the clicks?
>How?  You're only using one ear.

I agree with the content of the post, but the demonstration is bogus.  Quite
apart from any audio clues as to the location of the sound, you have the clues
arising from the fact that you know where your fingers are.  There is no
obvious way to tell whether or not this extra information is used to
``cheat''. 

A proper demonstration (which works quite well, incidentely) would be to have
a second person produce the sounds.

SR