1978
Image: Max Neuhaus, Sound Text Siren
In the 1980's Neuhaus took on the problem of redesigning the sounds of emergency-vehicle sirens. The project's focuses were to make sounds that were locatable in an urban environment so people would know what to do when they heard one, to allow drivers of emergency vehicles to hear one another when their sirens were on so they wouldn't run into each other, and to make sounds we could live with – which would have authority without being authoritarian.
sirens, an edition at 66 East, 18 March, 22 April 2007
Bibliography of papers on Localisation of Sound and Sirens:
Blauert, J. (1997) Spatial Hearing, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Carlile, S. and King, A.J. (1993) 'Auditory Neuroscience: from outer ear to virtual space', Current Biology, 3, 446-8.
De Lorenzo, R.A. and Eilers, M.A. (1991), 'Lights and Siren: A review of emergency vehicle warning systems', Annals of Emergency Medicine, Z0, 1331-5.
Haas, E.C. and Edworthy, J. (1996) 'Designing urgency into auditory warnings using pitch, speed and loudness',Computing and Control Engineering Journal, August, 193-8.
Hunt, C.R., Brown, L.H., Cabinum, E.S., Whitely, T.W., Prasad, N.H., Owens, C.F. and Mayo, C.E. (1995) 'Is ambulance transport time with lights and siren faster than without?', Annals of Emergency Medicine, 20, 507-11.
King, A.J. (1990) 'The integration of visual and auditory spatial information in the brain', in D.M. Gutherie (ed.),Higher Order Sensory Processing, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Knudsen, E.l., du Lac, S. and Esterley, S.D. (1987) 'Computational maps in the brain’, Annual Review of Neuroscience, 10, 41-65.
Makous, J.C. and Middlebrooks, J.C. (1990) 'Two-dimensional sound localization by human listeners', Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 87, 2188-200.
Patterson, R.D. (1982) 'Guidelines for Auditory Warning Systems on Civil Aircraft', CAA paper 82017, London: Civil Aviation Authority.
Rutherford, P. (1997) 'Auditory navigation and the escape from smoke filled buildings' in R. Junge (ed.), CAAD Futures, Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Features, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Sahibzada, N., Dean, P. and Redgrave, P. (1986) 'Movements resembling orientation or avoidance elicited by electrical stimulation of the superior colliculus in rats, Journal of Neuroscience, 6, 723-33.
Stein, B.E. and Meredith, M.A. (1993) The Merging of the Senses, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Stevens, S.S. and Newman, E.B. (1936) 'The localization of actual sources of sound', American Journal of Psychology, 48, 297-306.
Wightman, F.L. and Kistler, D.J. (1993) 'Sound Localization', in W.A. Yost, A.N. Popper and R.R. Fay (eds), Human Psychophysics, New York: Springer-Verlag.
Withington, D.J. (1996) 'The quest for better ambulance sirens', Ambulance UK, 11, 20-21.
Withington, D.J. and Chapman, A.C. (1996) 'Where's that siren?', Science and Public Affairs, Summer, 59-61.
Withington, D.J. and Paterson, S.E. (1998) 'Safer Sirens', Fire Engineers Journal, 48, 6-10.
Withington, D.J (1999) Localisable Sirens, a chapter from Human Factors in Auditory Warnings – Edited by Neville A Stanton & Judy Edworthy Published by Ashgate Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-291-39849-9
Withington, DJ (2000) The use of directional sound to improve the safety of auditory warnings XIVth Triennial Congress of the International Ergonomics Association & 44th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, San Diego, August 1st, 2000.
Withington, DJ (2001) Directional sound for emergency evacuation 45th session of the IMO’s Sub Committee on Fire Protection (FP45) on 10th January 2001