IntroductionThe human auditory system is incredibly accurate at identifying signal content, location, and meaning through discrete neurological processes. The precision of these processes begins in the external anatomical portions of the auditory pathway: the auricle and the ear canal. The pinna serves to collect sound from the environment and generate direction-dependent signals through spectral transformations (Hofman, et al, 1998; Raykar, et al, 2005). Sounds that are funneled into the ear canal contain a range of frequencies that are amplified and attenuated. This interaction of complex sound waves, based on the unique shape of an individual's pinna, results in a transfer function used for localization in the vertical plane (Hofman, et al, 1998, p. 417). There is evidence that the notches and spectral peaks formed when sound interacts with the pinna are a key component for localizing sound in the vertical plane (Raykar, et al, 2005, p. 364). Spectral changes caused by reflections of sound waves off the unique curves of the pinna are referred to as “spectral shaping.” This occurs mainly in frequencies above 6 kHz, as the wavelength of the sound is short enough to allow interaction with the ear pinna. This indicates that sound localization is influenced more by high frequencies (Moore, 2007, p. 186). Each individual ear is unique and provides frequency information not offered by any other aspect of the auditory pathway. The characteristic curvature and overall shape of the pinna helps shape complex signals to determine spatial information by integrating frequency transformations for both ears. Therefore, it is important to be able to receive binaural sound to accurately localize the signal in space and reduce ambiguity within...... half of the paper... that will be used for the project. Works Cited Hofman, P. M., Van Riswick, J. G., & Van Opstal, A. J. (1998). Relearning sound localization with new ears. Natural Neuroscience, 1(5), 417-421. Hone, R. (2010). Increase in auricle and hearing gain. Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery, 143(2), P243.Kuk, F., Korhonen, P., Lau, C., Keenan, D., & Norgaard, M. (2013). Evaluation of an auricle compensation algorithm for sound localization and speech perception in noise. American Journal of Audiology, 22(1), 84-93.Moore, Brian C.J. (2007). Cochlear hearing loss: Physiological, psychological and technical issues. England: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Raykar, V.C., Duraiswami, R., & Yegnanarayana, B. (2005). Extraction of fin spectral notch frequencies in measured head-related impulse responses. The journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 118(1), 364-374.