CAREER: Audio RESCUE: Realistic Audio for RESponders in Complex Undetermined Environments

急救员在飓风、海啸、地震、火灾和恐怖事件等危险条件下拯救生命，他们的作用比以往任何时候都更加重要。对于消防员来说，搜救任务中最大的挑战是能见度低、迷失方向和跟踪其他队员。尽管采取了各种方法来克服这些挑战，但消防员仍然受到在建筑物中迷路、位置和空间沟通错误以及无法识别路径的困扰。该项目研究使用空间(或3D)声音来表示感兴趣的目标(例如，走失的儿童)，以便允许急救人员使用声音导航到他们无法看到的特定点。在这种情况下使用3D声音是一个很有前途的解决方案，因为响应者的手经常被占用，而视觉显示会增加认知负荷。此外，目前的工作将开发补充增强现实模块，用于消防员紧急医疗服务(EMS)培训。这项培训将允许消防员在教室外的现实环境中练习EMS技能。PI和团队将通过从分布的本科生研究经验(DREU)项目和非裔美国人计算科学导师研究所(IAAMCS)招募不同的未被充分代表的少数族裔学生。佛罗里达大学(UF)的本科生也将通过新兴学者计划被招募参与拟议的工作。此外，消防员将接受更多的互动教育培训，这是他们在这项研究计划中合作的直接结果。这项研究将追求一项新的研究计划，以创建一个基本的理解，如何将3D音频研究从实验室转移到现实世界。作为试验台应用领域，项目团队将与盖恩斯维尔消防救援(GFR)密切合作，评估使用3D音频来支持搜救任务。PI和团队将评估消防员的表现，并使用结果为数据驱动和经验主义验证的3D声音设计指南提供信息，以解决以下挑战：逼真的3D声音呈现-由于3D声音过滤器的个人主义性质、声音传递硬件和声音的感知质量，这是具有挑战性的；变化检测-在现实世界的环境中，用户必须能够快速检测3D声音的变化，然而，这方面的文献有限；竞争声音的效果-现实世界场景中充满背景噪声，可能会阻碍听众准确地区分感兴趣的3D声音。项目成果将帮助急救人员以不引人注意的方式感知他们周围的360度世界，并保持对他们周围环境的认识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

First responders save lives in hazardous conditions such as hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, fires, and terror events, and their role is more important than ever. For firefighters, the greatest challenges in search and rescue tasks are low visibility, disorientation, and tracking other team members. Despite methods to overcome these challenges, firefighters are still plagued by getting lost in buildings, miscommunication of locations and spaces, and not being able to identify paths. This project investigates using spatial (or 3D) sound to represent targets of interest (for example, a lost child) in order to allow first responders to use sound to navigate to specific points that they are unable to see. Using 3D sound in this context is a promising solution because responders' hands are often occupied, and a visual display can increase cognitive load. In addition, the present work will develop supplemental augmented-reality modules for firefighter emergency medical service (EMS) training. This training will allow firefighters to practice EMS skills in a realistic environment outside of the classroom. The PI and team will engage a diverse pool of underrepresented minority students through recruitment from the Distributed Research Experiences for Undergraduates (DREU) program and the Institute for African American Mentoring in Computing Sciences (iAAMCS). University of Florida (UF) undergraduate students will also be recruited through the Emerging Scholars Program to participate in the proposed work. Furthermore, firefighters will receive more interactive educational training as a direct result of their collaboration in this research program.This research will pursue a novel research program to create a fundamental understanding of how to move 3D audio research out of the laboratory into the real world. Working closely with Gainesville Fire Rescue (GFR) as the testbed application domain, the project team will evaluate using 3D audio to support a search and rescue mission. The PI and team will evaluate firefighters' performance and use the results to inform data-driven and empirically validated 3D sound design guidelines that address the following challenges: Realistic 3D sound rendering - this is challenging due to the individualistic nature of 3D sound filters, sound delivery hardware, and perceptual qualities of sounds; Change detection - in real-world contexts, a user must be able to quickly detect 3D sound changes, however, limited literature exists in this area; Effects of competing sounds - real-world scenarios are filled with background noise that may hinder the listener from accurately distinguishing a 3D sound of interest. Project outcomes will help first responders unobtrusively perceive the 360 degree world around them and maintain awareness of their surroundings.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.