Toward HRTF personalization: an auditory-perceptual evaluation of simulated and measured HRTFs

Sound localization tests were carried out with two subjects using a Virtual Auditory Display (VAD) to determine the intersubject effects on localization accuracy, of employing either acoustically measured or Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD)-simulated Head Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs). Results indicate that the simulated HRTFs were able to yield comparable localization performance and carried sufficient acoustic cues for personalization.

[1]  Allen Taflove,et al.  Computational Electrodynamics the Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method , 1995 .

[2]  Yuvi Kahana,et al.  Numerical Modelling of the Transfer Functions of a Dummy-Head and of the External Ear , 1999 .

[3]  R. Duda,et al.  Approximating the head-related transfer function using simple geometric models of the head and torso. , 2002, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[4]  D M Green,et al.  Observations on a principal components analysis of head-related transfer functions. , 1992, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[5]  Zhenyang Wu,et al.  HRTF personalization based on artificial neural network in individual virtual auditory space , 2008 .

[6]  H S Colburn,et al.  Variability in the characterization of the headphone transfer-function. , 2000, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[7]  S. Carlile,et al.  Enabling Individualized Virtual Auditory Space using Morphological Measurments , 2000 .

[8]  R Meddis,et al.  A physical model of sound diffraction and reflections in the human concha. , 1996, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[9]  Parham Mokhtari,et al.  Comparison of Simulated and Measured HRTFs: FDTD Simulation Using MRI Head Data , 2007 .

[10]  Ramani Duraiswami,et al.  Extracting the frequencies of the pinna spectral notches in measured head related impulse responses. , 2004, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[11]  Q. Liu,et al.  Finite difference computation of head-related transfer function for human hearing. , 2003, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[12]  Marie Nakazawa,et al.  Development of Sound Localization System with Tube Earphone Using Human Head Model with Ear Canal , 2005, IEICE Trans. Fundam. Electron. Commun. Comput. Sci..

[13]  F L Wightman,et al.  Headphone simulation of free-field listening. I: Stimulus synthesis. , 1989, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[14]  J. C. Middlebrooks.  Virtual localization improved by scaling nonindividualized external-ear transfer functions in frequency. , 1999, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[15]  B F Katz,et al.  Boundary element method calculation of individual head-related transfer function. I. Rigid model calculation. , 2001, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[16]  Ramani Duraiswami,et al.  Fast Multipole Accelerated Boundary Elements for Numerical Computation of the Head Related Transfer Function , 2007, 2007 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing - ICASSP '07.

[17]  Makoto Otani,et al.  Fast calculation system specialized for head-related transfer function based on boundary element method. , 2006, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[19]  F L Wightman,et al.  Localization using nonindividualized head-related transfer functions. , 1993, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[20]  H. Saunders,et al.  Acoustics: An Introduction to Its Physical Principles and Applications , 1984 .

[21]  Doris J. Kistler,et al.  Measurement and validation of human HRTFs for use in hearing research , 2005 .

[22]  Q. Liu,et al.  Finite difference computation of head-related transfer function for human hearing , 2001 .

[23]  F. Asano,et al.  An optimum computer‐generated pulse signal suitable for the measurement of very long impulse responses , 1995 .

[24]  Larry S. Davis,et al.  HRTF personalization using anthropometric measurements , 2003, 2003 IEEE Workshop on Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics (IEEE Cat. No.03TH8684).

[25]  Kazuya Takeda,et al.  Estimation of HRTFs on the horizontal plane using physical features , 2007 .

[27]  J. C. Middlebrooks,et al.  Individual differences in external-ear transfer functions reduced by scaling in frequency. , 1999, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.