Auditory localization: a comprehensive practical review.

Auditory localization is a fundamental ability that allows to perceive the spatial location of a sound source in the environment. The present work aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the mechanisms and acoustic cues used by the human perceptual system to achieve such accurate auditory localization. Acoustic cues are derived from the physical properties of sound waves, and many factors allow and influence auditory localization abilities.

uB-VisioGeoloc: An image sequences dataset of pedestrian navigation including geolocalised-inertial information and spatial sound rendering of the urban environment's obstacles.

The dataset proposed is a collection of pedestrian navigation data sequences combining visual and spatial information. The pedestrian navigation sequences are situations encountered by a pedestrian walking in an urban outdoor environment, such as moving on the sidewalk, navigating through a crowd, or crossing a street when the pedestrian light traffic is green. The acquired data are timestamped provided RGB-D images and are associated with GPS, and inertial data (acceleration, rotation).

Outdoor Navigation Assistive System Based on Robust and Real-Time Visual-Auditory Substitution Approach.

Blindness affects millions of people worldwide, leading to difficulties in daily travel and a loss of independence due to a lack of spatial information. This article proposes a new navigation aid to help people with severe blindness reach their destination. Blind people are guided by a short 3D spatialised sound that indicates the target point to follow.

Cross-modal correspondence enhances elevation localization in visual-to-auditory sensory substitution.

Introduction: Visual-to-auditory sensory substitution devices are assistive devices for the blind that convert visual images into auditory images (or soundscapes) by mapping visual features with acoustic cues. To convey spatial information with sounds, several sensory substitution devices use a Virtual Acoustic Space (VAS) using Head Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs) to synthesize natural acoustic cues used for sound localization. However, the perception of the elevation is known to be inaccurate with generic spatialization since it is based on notches in the audio spectrum that are specific to each individual.

Sunny Pointer: Designing a mouse pointer for people with peripheral vision loss.

We introduce here a new mouse cursor designed to facilitate the use of the mouse by people with peripheral vision loss. The pointer consists of a collection of converging straight lines covering the whole screen and following the position of the mouse cursor. We measured its positive effects in a group of participants with peripheral vision loss of different kinds and found that it can reduce by a factor of seven the time required to complete a targeting task using the mouse.

Support vector machines for spike pattern classification with a leaky integrate-and-fire neuron.

Spike pattern classification is a key topic in machine learning, computational neuroscience, and electronic device design. Here, we offer a new supervised learning rule based on Support Vector Machines (SVM) to determine the synaptic weights of a leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) neuron model for spike pattern classification. We compare classification performance between this algorithm and other methods sharing the same conceptual framework.