A basic study of a voice evacuation guidance system in plane space using precedence effect

We developed a voice evacuation guidance system using a precedence effect.The precedence effect is a psychoacoustic effect that seems to hear only the sound from the direction of the sound source that first reached the ear when sound comes from two or more sound sources having different positions. This system becomes possible to evacuation guidance to the appropriate exit by using this effect. In addition, this evacuation guidance system has a feature of using sound, so evacuation guidance also can be induced in a safe place when it is poor visibility due to smoke or dust at the time of a disaster such as a fire. Moreover, this system gives the evacuee peace of mind by using voice for guidance, and it also has the effect of suppressing psychological upset of evacuees. In this report, we study an application of the plane space by this system. Specifically, we investigate to play the sound from the four speakers located at the four corners of the indoor space with an appropriate delay time so that it is clarified a condition that the evacuees obtain the sense of direction of the sound on the side of the speaker that is playing the preceding sound. In this study, we first evaluated the direction of arrival of sound by subjects when the sense of direction of sound and the sound pressure level at both ears change using two speakers. Next, we evaluated the direction of sound in the plane space under the conditions based on the above results. As a result, the subject succeeded in getting the sense of direction of the sound on the preceding sound side, and we showed the effectiveness of this system.