Room Acoustic Auralization: HRTF Modeling using Wavelet Transforms

The focus of this work is centered in the sound output process of the room acoustic simulators, called auralization. For t his purpose, a new model for the Head Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs) was developed by representing it through wavelet transforms, in order to simulate the human auditory perception. Such model can be obtained through an adaptive process or by an analytical formulation, being both solutions presented in this paper. For auralization pu rposes, is shown how the process of convolution, which involves the HRTFs, can be substituted by a multirate filter bank implementation and the original HRTF represented by a set of coefficients carryi ng, simultaneously, information about time and frequency (multiresolution). A large reduction in the total number of modeled coefficients i s obtained (approximately 15% of the original length) without affecting significantly the HRTF original frequency response.