What Is the Sound of One Disk Crashing? 

by Rob Guth, IDG News Service, Tokyo Bureau 
March 12, 1998 

Hitachi and researchers at Tokyo Denki University have developed audio
technology that opens the Windows operating system to blind computer users,
Hitachi announced today. 

The technology employs audio cues to represent cursor position, icons, and
other graphical objects, the company said. Hitachi has not decided when it
will bring the technology to market. 

The technology incorporates 3D sound generation, which represents position,
distance, and direction by varying a sound's loudness and arrival time as it
reaches each of the user's ears, the company said. This allows Windows to
mimic the natural conditions under which humans perceive sound: People
perceive the direction and distance of a sound source through differences in
the way each ear perceives its loudness and arrival time, the company said.  

http://www.hitachi.co.jp/