Spatialized Auditory and Vibrotactile Cueing for Dynamic Three-Dimensional Visual Search

The traditional method of maintaining spatial awareness through visual displays can cause visual system overload and lead to performance decrements. This study examined the benefits of spatialized auditory, tactile, and audio-tactile cues for maintaining awareness as a method of enhancing visual search performance. I examined visual search performance in an immersive, dynamic, three-dimensional (360-degree), virtual reality environment with no cues, spatialized auditory cues, degraded spatialized auditory cues, spatialized tactile cues, spatialized audio-tactile cues, and degraded spatialized auditory with tactile cues. Results indicated a significant reduction in visual search time from the no-cue condition when any cues were presented. The tactile display did not provide an additional benefit when combined with the auditory display. The results of this study can inform the creation of multimodal displays appropriate to specific operational settings, such as including auditory displays in dynamic settings or including tactile displays when the visual target is behind the operator, which will improve visual search performance, increase mission effectiveness, and possibly save lives