Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!rochester!pt!speech1.cs.cmu.edu!phd 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