ENVIRONMENT FOR AUDITORY RESEARCH: DESIGN PRINCIPLES AND CAPABILITIES

The Environment for Auditory Research (EAR) is a new U.S. Army research facility dedicated to spatial perception and speech communication research. The EAR is comprised of four indoor research spaces (Sphere Room, Dome Room, Distance Hall, and Listening Laboratory), one outdoor research space (OpenEAR), and one common control center (Control Room) that permits concurrent execution of three independent studies. The facility offers various acoustic test environments ranging from anechoic, through various simulated, to real field environments. The acoustic and audio capabilities of the EAR support a wide range of experimental studies, and the facility is available to both government and non-government researchers to conduct their own and joint research studies. This paper presents the design principles used in developing the EAR and the physical properties of the completed EAR facility. The goal of the paper is to present basic technical information about the facility to the research community that may consider conducting research studies in the EAR.