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The ability to localize sounds in our aural space, while no longer contributing to our evolutionary fitness, remains invaluable to everyday life. Pinnae effects let us localize nuances that would otherwise be ambiguous; masking makes speech perception possible under adverse circumstances; the Haas effect allows us to process complex sounds without undue difficulty. Applying known principles to our technology offers a world of possibility: binaural recordings (to name one) offer a soundstage to rival the best speaker systems at a fraction of the cost.

However, commercial applications have left many potential achievements untapped, speaking optimistically. The ever-changing crop of computer gamers may not even remember the incredulity everyone felt 5 years ago when the first interactive demo was released allowing you to drag simple sound sources around and behind (!) your virtual head; while the technology still exists, the death of Aureal may have condemned additional binaural research to the stagnation also plaguing the fledgling binaural recording industry. Even among specialized and minimalist CD labels, adoption of professional dummy heads seems slow at best, with the major distributor of binaural CDs from around the world having been closed for over a year.

While the consumer can't have it all, it appears, there remains hope. Academic research continues to explore the astonishing accuracy that modern 3D synthesis can provide; to refine the application of binaural masking to help hearing-aid users; above all to enhance our underlying knowledge of the auditory system. With this knowledge in hand, one need only await the next "killer app."

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