If you're 100% deaf in one ear...

As I say, I can understand how our ears determine position from left or right, but if a sound is directly above or below us, how do the ears determine that?
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We have three ways of determining direction.
(1) phase + amplitude difference between two ears (360 degree plane around us + some z-axis)
(2) simple amplitude per ear (far away or close)
(3) the shape of the outer ear alters how different sounds are perceived, and helps us detect whether sound is coming from above or below us. People with their outer ears cut off find it difficult to localise sounds too :).
 
Morgoth said:
How good is the hearing in your other ear?
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I've changed the picture above.
I'm told it's very good for a man my age and especially with what I get up to at the weekends.
Incidentally my hearing problem had got nothing to do with loud music but is congenital.
 
I am mostly deaf in both ears, wear an hearing aid in just one, I can usually tell which direction the sound is coming from. If that helps. :p
 
You localise sound partly by interaural time and level differences (the phase shift and amplitude difference between sound arriving at different ears) but partly by head related transfer functions (HRTF).

This refers to the way sound is modified by being reflected and/or absorbed by our head and shoulders and partly outer ear too. They are small changes but we are well tuned into them and these changes are responsible for localising sound behind, above or below us particularly.

In short, yes, with only 1 ear you can still localise sound fairly well.
 
Underwater creatures locate using sound in a different way to us, but I think most land creatures which hear will be able to locate sound.

I remember when our cat got very old her hearing got bad, she only responded to loud sounds at all, and when she did she looked completely the wrong way :( . Not sure what happened exactly in that case.
 
5UB said:
I am mostly deaf in both ears, wear an hearing aid in just one, I can usually tell which direction the sound is coming from. If that helps. :p
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This is not as a result of you concealing and then pulling out any number of coins, cards, hankerchiefs or small animals/birds from your ears?

/Salsa
 
I have roughly 3% hearing in my right ear, and I didn't stop me doing a degree in sound.

It does affect me a little bit, but it's not a massive deal. I've found that my other ear compensates for it a little bit.
 
I was born deaf in my right ear

I've never been able to tell where sound is coming from. Often I find myself turning around in circles trying to tell where something is coming from. Other times I ask who ever is around, even my 5 year old can tell where the sounds are coming from. I'm also a very bad dancer and my first boyfriend decided that it was because I was deaf in one ear and can't hear the tones. Surround sound sounds the same as regular sound to me, only louder.
 
Since this thread I had a one way slanging match with a colleague that was overheard by several Managers.
A phone was ringing and I was stuck between 3 desks looking for a sign which one it was and chose the wrong one.
This nasty colleague jumped up and said 'For Gods sake answer the phone' and picked the correct one up.
I just said 'Well tell me which one' and she started to ball at me while the caller was listening on the other end.
One of the Managers must have had a talk to her because she's been as nice as pie since then.
Result.
 
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