Click here to purchase the entire book in PDF format. Cone of Confusion Exactly how good are you at the localization of sound sources? Well, if the sound is in front of you, you'll be accurate to within about 2$^{\circ }$ or so. If the sound is directly to one side, you'll be up to about 7$^{\circ }$ off, and if the sound is above you, you're really bad at it... typical errors for localizing sources above your head are about 14$^{\circ }$ - 20$^{\circ }$[Blauert, 1997]. Why? Well, probably because, anthropologically speaking, more stuff was attacking from the ground than from the sky. You're better equipped if you can hear where the sabre-toothed tiger is rather than the large now-extinct human-eating flying penguin... If you play a sound for someone on one side of their head and asked them to point at the direction of the sound source, they would typically point in the wrong direction, but be pointing in the correct angle. That is, if the sound is 5$^{\circ }$ off-centre in the front, some people will point 5$^{\circ }$ off-centre in the back, Some people will point 5$^{\circ }$ above centre and so on. If you made a diagram of the incorrect (and correct) guesses, you'd wind up drawing a cone sticking out of the test subject's ear. This is called the cone of confusion. INCLUDE A DRAWING OF THE CONE OF CONFUSION