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Locating virtual sound sources at arbitrary distances in real-time binaural reproduction

  • S.I. : Spatial Sound
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Abstract

A real-time system for sound spatialization via headphones is presented. Conventional headphone spatialization techniques effectively place sources on the surface of a virtual sphere around the listener. In the new system, sources can be spatialized at different distances from a listener by interpolating head-related impulse responses (HRIRs) measured between 20 and 160 cm. These HRIRs are stored in different databases depending on the audio sampling rate. To ease the real-time constraints, users can choose the number of HRIR taps used in the convolution, and an alternative interpolation technique (simplex interpolation) was implemented instead of trilinear interpolation. Subjective tests showed that such simplifications yield satisfactory spatialization for some angles and distances.

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Notes

  1. www.papasangre.com.

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  4. http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/AudioSpatializerSDK.html.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the Competitive Research Funds (P-14) of the University of Aizu.

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  1. Computer Arts Laboratory, University of Aizu, Aizu-Wakamatsu, 965-8580, Japan

    Julián Villegas

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  1. Julián Villegas
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Correspondence to Julián Villegas.

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Villegas, J. Locating virtual sound sources at arbitrary distances in real-time binaural reproduction. Virtual Reality 19, 201–212 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-015-0278-0

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