OE-2.3 Hearing, Touch & Audio Displays
You can explain the auditory pathway and 3D sound localization, describe the vestibular system's role, and outline the anatomy behind the sense of touch.
Spatial audio does more for presence than most people expect, and it is cheap compared with visual fidelity - which makes this unit unusually practical. The vestibular system is the villain of VR: when the eyes report motion the inner ear does not, you get simulator sickness, and that mismatch is the single biggest constraint on VR design. The skin section sets up the haptics hardware in the next unit.
Work through these
The mechanics of hearing; defining sound
The physics of sound and the mechanics of the ear, taken before any audio hardware. Sound is the sense most often treated as an afterthought and it does more work than people expect.
The auditory pathway
How a sound becomes a signal the brain can use. It is the hearing counterpart of the sight item in the first topic, and it plays the same role.
Sound cues and 3D localization
How you know where a sound came from, using differences between the two ears. Reproducing those differences is what makes audio feel positioned rather than merely present.
The vestibular system
The balance organ, and the reason motion sickness is a problem in this field. When the eyes report motion and this system does not, people feel ill, which is a design constraint rather than a curiosity.
Audio displays and conventional audio
Delivering positioned sound, and how it differs from ordinary stereo. The comparison is the point: conventional audio has no notion of where you are facing.
The mechanics and science of feeling
The third sense the subject uses, and the one hardest to reproduce. It leads directly into the force feedback devices of the next topic.
Anatomy and composition of the skin
What the skin is actually made of and which receptors it carries. It explains why some touch sensations are cheap to fake and others are not.
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Links last checked 30 Aug 2026.
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