Binaural synthesis with the Web Audio API

The Web Audio API is a powerful new platform for audio rendering within the browser and it provides a great opportunity for large deployment of audio applications. This paper explores the possibilities and limitations of the API for 3D sound spatialization based on binaural synthesis over headphones. The paper examines different processing structures and presents a new web-based server which allows the user to load individualized Head-Related Transfer Functions from a remote database.

[1]  Henrik Møller.  Fundamentals of binaural technology , 1991 .

[2]  Alan V. Oppenheim,et al.  Discrete-Time Signal Pro-cessing , 1989 .

[3]  Jean-Marc Jot,et al.  Digital Signal Processing Issues in the Context of Binaural and Transaural Stereophony , 1995 .

[4]  Alan V. Oppenheim,et al.  Discrete-time signal processing (2nd ed.) , 1999 .

[5]  Olivier Warusfel,et al.  Measurement of a head-related transfer function database with high spatial resolution , 2014 .

[6]  Matti Karjalainen,et al.  Objective and Subjective Evaluation of Head-Related Transfer Function Filter Design , 1999 .

[7]  V. Mellert,et al.  Transformation characteristics of the external human ear. , 1977, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[8]  David Stanley Mcgrath,et al.  Using Auralization Techniques to Render 5.1 Surround to Binaural and Transaural Playback , 1997 .

[9]  Unto K. Laine,et al.  Splitting the unit delay [FIR/all pass filters design] , 1996, IEEE Signal Process. Mag..

[10]  G. Richter.  BAP Binaural Audio Processor , 1992 .

[11]  Mark R. Anderson,et al.  Direct comparison of the impact of head tracking, reverberation, and individualized head-related transfer functions on the spatial perception of a virtual speech source. , 2001, Journal of the Audio Engineering Society. Audio Engineering Society.

[12]  Yukio Iwaya,et al.  Spatially Oriented Format for Acoustics: A Data Exchange Format Representing Head-Related Transfer Functions , 2013 .

[13]  J. Blauert.  Spatial Hearing: The Psychophysics of Human Sound Localization , 1983 .

[14]  F. Wightman,et al.  The dominant role of low-frequency interaural time differences in sound localization. , 1992, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.