A real‐time virtual auditory system for spatially dynamic perception research

A Real Time Virtual Auditory System (RT‐VAS) is being developed to provide a high‐performance, cost‐effective, flexible system that can dynamically update filter coefficients in hard real time on a PC. An InterSense head tracker is incorporated to provide low‐latency head tracking to allow studies with head motion. Processing is done using a real‐time Linux Kernel (RTAI kernel patch) which allows for precise processor scheduling, resulting in negligible time jitter of output samples. Output is calculated at a sample rate of 44.1 kHz and displayed using a National Instruments DAQ. Object oriented approach to system development allows for customizable input, position, and calculation routines as well as multiple independent auditory objects. Input and position may be calculated in real‐time or read from a file. Calculation of output may include filtering with spatially sampled HRTFs or analytic models and head movements may be recorded to file. Limitations of the system are tied to the speed of the processo...