COL Nancy Vause, USA
Anti-personnel landmines constitute a worldwide threat usually located by hand-held metal detectors. Future detection systems employ multi-sensor technologies. With the increased amount of information comes an arduous task of presenting this information to the soldier in a meaningful and intuitive way. Sound is the primary means of information transfer. The system communicates object detection to the operator by generating auditory signals that convey information about changes in the environment and the status of the device. These systems typically employ sounds (e.g., a high frequency pure tone) as the primary man-machine interface alerting operators of their location. The design of the auditory interface proved critical during operational testing of a new Army detector. Forty-six percent of randomly selected soldiers presented with hearing loss detecting only 30% of the landmines. These signals proved confusing and difficult to hear by operators with hearing loss reducing the percent detection (PD) rate. A properly designed auditory signal should be resistant to low 4 frequency environmental masking noise and easily heard by most users (with or without hearing loss). This paper will present a series of experiments designed to develop a user centered designed intuitive auditory interface. Furthermore, the authors will discuss evidence supporting individual differences for musically trained versus non-trained listeners.