Audio systems for virtual reality and augmented reality training environments commonly focus on high-quality audio reproduction. Yet many trainees may face real-world situations where hearing is compromised. In these cases, the hindrance caused by impaired or lost hearing is a significant stressor that may affect performance. Because this phenomenon is hard to simulate without actually causing hearing damage, trainees are largely unpracticed at operating with diminished hearing. To improve the

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... atch between training scenarios and the real-world situation, this effort aims to add simulated hearing loss or impairment as a training variable. Stated briefly, the goal is to effect non everything users hearincluding non-simulated sounds such as their own and each other's voices -without damaging their hearing, being overtly noticeable, or requiring the donning of headphones.