Localizable sound and its application in guiding passengers towards exits during aircraft evacuations

Lower, Mike, Kay, Alison M., Thomas, Lauren J. and Muir, Helen C. (2004) Localizable sound and its application in guiding passengers towards exits during aircraft evacuations. The Fourth Triennial International Aircraft Fire and Cabin Safety Research Conference, Lisbon, Portugal. 15 - 18 Nov 2004. 14 pp .

Abstract

Transport Canada has funded cabin safety research programmes within the Human Factors Group at Cranfield University for a number of years. One recent programme, carried out in collaboration with the ISVR at the University of Southampton, was concerned with passengers’ ability to localise sound within an aircraft cabin. Sounds that can be easily localised may help to guide passengers to exits during aircraft evacuations when visibility is poor.
A comprehensive literature review was undertaken to study previous applications of sounds in way-finding and evacuation, to explore what qualities or characteristics would make sounds most effective, and to explore operational constraints that may apply particularly in aircraft. For example, opportunities to familiarise airline passengers with the meaning and use of evacuation sounds may be limited, whereas in the workplace, employees would become familiar with the sounds and procedures through recurrent training and emergency drills.
Based on the literature review, several candidate sounds were designed and tested. Candidate sounds were designed to have characteristics associated with highly localizable sound, and were tested in an anechoic chamber to assess the extent to which participants could localize each of the sounds. ‘White noise’ or broadband sound is generally accepted to be among the best, if not the best localised of sounds. The results of the experiment showed that a carefully designed sound, a multi-component complex tone developed specifically for the research, was localized almost as well as broadband sound.
The optimum complex tone had a distinctive timbre and pitch, making it recognisable as an evacuation or warning signal, unlike white noise. Complex tones may also be easier to detect than white noise above background noise. Consequently, well localized complex tones such as this may be even more effective than broadband sound for assisting passenger evacuations.

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