Our bodies n brains are so cool. Think about what goes into locating a sound in space.
Edit: there’s more to it but at the most basic level your brain calculates the fraction of a second difference between when one ear picks up a sound and when the other does creating a reference point based on that.
That’s boring. Two ears only allow you to put the sound somewhere on a plane (the vertical one that cuts your body in half lengthwise). How do you know the ‘height’ of the sound on that plane? By utilizing the different distortions the sound goes through while being funneled through your auricle.
Also that everyones brain has tuned this perception based on their own ear shape, and if you add prosthetic ridges to someones ear they become very bad at determining the noise source direction in blindfold tests.
My hearing is pretty severely damaged in my left ear, and for several months I thought everything was to my right. but my ability to locate sounds has come back. My hearings not any better, my brain just figured out that my left ears fucked and compensated.
I got into an argument with someone once about this, when they told me (paraphrasing) “it’s safe to drive listening to music through headphones, because they let outside sound in”.
Yes they indeed might, but - even ignoring delay introduced from digital electronics - you’ve now lost all sense of where that sound is coming from, because you’re listening to the sound of one microphone being played through one speaker.
Now you’ve got me picturing headphones hooked up to microphones outside of your car. I wonder if that would work well or not.
I have friends who refuse to play with headsets and then wonder why I’m so good at FPS compared to them. I’ve told them multiple times that it is solely the fact that I can locate enemies due to the headphones, yet they refuse to believe me, for some reason.
I think the “more to it” might be significantly crazier than the timing thing.
Or ears have unique complex shapes that attenuate certain frequencies and bounce sound around in complex ways depending on the direction they are coming from. And our brains instantly process all that stuff too. It’s why our sense of hearing isn’t just on a flat plane around our head.
Beyond that there’s been a considerable amount of research about our ability to estimate room size/material/shape while blindfolded just based on the reverberation of sounds in the space.
Oversimplified conclusion, untrained humans are really good at it.
![[Thread] Mental Math](https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/4a605b7b-7272-471f-ac11-37366ac7d8bd.png){kind=link}
Our bodies n brains are so cool. Think about what goes into locating a sound in space.
Edit: there’s more to it but at the most basic level your brain calculates the fraction of a second difference between when one ear picks up a sound and when the other does creating a reference point based on that.
That’s boring. Two ears only allow you to put the sound somewhere on a plane (the vertical one that cuts your body in half lengthwise). How do you know the ‘height’ of the sound on that plane? By utilizing the different distortions the sound goes through while being funneled through your auricle.
Also that everyones brain has tuned this perception based on their own ear shape, and if you add prosthetic ridges to someones ear they become very bad at determining the noise source direction in blindfold tests.
Also, moving your ears and your head.
My hearing is pretty severely damaged in my left ear, and for several months I thought everything was to my right. but my ability to locate sounds has come back. My hearings not any better, my brain just figured out that my left ears fucked and compensated.
I got into an argument with someone once about this, when they told me (paraphrasing) “it’s safe to drive listening to music through headphones, because they let outside sound in”.
Yes they indeed might, but - even ignoring delay introduced from digital electronics - you’ve now lost all sense of where that sound is coming from, because you’re listening to the sound of one microphone being played through one speaker.
The human ear really is an incredible thing.
Counterpoint: echolocating with footsteps in csgo (entirely a joke, I agree that headphones while driving are unsafe)
Now you’ve got me picturing headphones hooked up to microphones outside of your car. I wonder if that would work well or not.
I have friends who refuse to play with headsets and then wonder why I’m so good at FPS compared to them. I’ve told them multiple times that it is solely the fact that I can locate enemies due to the headphones, yet they refuse to believe me, for some reason.
I think the “more to it” might be significantly crazier than the timing thing.
Or ears have unique complex shapes that attenuate certain frequencies and bounce sound around in complex ways depending on the direction they are coming from. And our brains instantly process all that stuff too. It’s why our sense of hearing isn’t just on a flat plane around our head.
And we can also slightly move our ears a tiny amount, but I’m sure even that does increase accuracy.
You can also detect is the source up or down thanks to ear shape which delays sound for couple of ms.
Put on some halfway decent headphones and try out the virtual barbershop.
Beyond that there’s been a considerable amount of research about our ability to estimate room size/material/shape while blindfolded just based on the reverberation of sounds in the space.
Oversimplified conclusion, untrained humans are really good at it.
We can also hear the difference between hot and cold water from the sound it makes while being poured into a cup
In space, no one can hear you scream