360° sound and light interference targeting system

Sound and light stimuli elicit a considerable portion of human sensory activity and are utilized in psychophysics and neurology research. The engineering objective was to develop an automated system able to determine how sound and light interference affect the accuracy of the human targeting system in a three-dimensional space. This was achieved by development of a hardware and software system, sound and light interference targeting or SLIT, which presented the subject with a sound or light target, preceded by a sound or light interference. Sony© Xpl5d 4-way speakers presented sound interference and sound targeting. The Martin® MiniMAC Profile operated as a source of light interference, while a red laser served as a light target. Data were collected via the Ascension Flock of Birds tracking system and a custom National Instruments® LabVIEW^™ 7.0 program. The developed SLIT system enables the tracking of virtual shots from a fired simulation gun in 360 degrees of direction within a cylindrical environment.