Performance Comparison of Two Identification Methods for Analysis of Head Related Impulse Responses

-Head-Related Impulse Responses (HRIRs) are used in signal processing to model the synthesis of spatialized audio which is used in a wide variety of applications, from computer games to aids for the vision impaired. They represent the modification to sound due to the listener’s torso, shoulders, head and pinnae, or outer ears. As such, HRIRs are somewhat different for each listener and require expensive specialized equipment for their measurement. Therefore, the development of a method to obtain customized HRIRs without specialized equipment is extremely desirable. In previous research on this topic, Prony’s modeling method was used to obtain an appropriate set of time delays and a resonant frequency to approximate measured HRIRs. During several recent experimental attempts to improve on this previous method, a noticeable increase in percent fit was obtained using the Steiglitz-McBride interative approximation method. In this paper we report on the comparison between these two methods and the statistically significant advantage found in using the Steiglitz-McBride method for the modeling of most HRIRs.