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From: phd@speech1.cs.cmu.edu (Paul Dietz)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Comb filters
Message-ID: <1005@speech1.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Mon, 13-Jul-87 22:42:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: speech1.1005
Posted: Mon Jul 13 22:42:59 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 15-Jul-87 02:12:27 EDT
References: <8707110358.AA14182@unisoft.UNISOFT> <7150@shemp.UCLA.EDU>
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 19
Summary: Phase sensitivity of the human auditory system...

In article <7150@shemp.UCLA.EDU>, scw@CS.UCLA.EDU writes:
> In article <8707110358.AA14182@unisoft.UNISOFT> doug@certes.UUCP writes:
> >...to remove phase information from sound output, which removed directional
> >cues that the human ear/brain uses, [...] light on this?
> 
> Sorry, the human auditory system disgards phase information (actually it
> doesn't even capture it). The only things of interest to the middle ear are
> pitch and volume, any other information is generated/recreated by the brain.

Above a kHz or so, this is a reasonable assumption. However, at lower
frequencies the cells in the cochlea are capable of "following" the
signal to some degree. Far be it from the brain not to use info it's gone
through the trouble of gathering! Phase IS IMPORTANT for horizontal
localization at LOW FREQUENCIES. For more info, look at the literature
on the position variable model by Stern and Colburn. (In the
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 64, 127-140, 1978.)

Paul H. Dietz
Carnegie Mellon University