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Sound localisation is the ability to tell the direction of a sound. A sound reaches one ear with a slightly higher intensity, and fractionally before it reaches the other ear, and the brain uses this information to work out where the sound is coming from. The ability to localise a sound therefore requires two functional ears, and this ability diminishes with performance reductions in either or both ears.

When sound localisation ability is low, it affects a person’s safe interaction in an environment. For example, if a person cannot tell the direction of an approaching bus or a car, he or she could be in danger of being struck by the vehicle.

Sound localisation is important when interacting with products that use sound to warn the user, or indicate where they are. The localisation can be assisted by other outputs such as lights, motion or vibration.

The sound of an ambulance siren is difficult to localise, because it contains only two specific frequencies. White noise is the easiest to localise, as this has a broad frequency range.