A signal processing approach to auditory alarm design and evaluation: An analysis of melodic medical equipment alarms

This article explores the application of signal processing in evaluating the design of acoustic and perceptual properties for auditory alarms. An analysis adopting a signal processing approach was conducted on a subset of the melodic alarms for medical electronic equipment proposed by the IEC 60601-1-8 standard. We compared our analytical findings with empirical results on discriminability by P.M. Sanderson et al.(2006) and found general consistency between the two. The comparison sheds light on how signal processing techniques could contribute to evaluation of auditory alarms and the development of standards. Implications for design are also discussed.