Resolving front-back ambiguity with head rotation: The role of level dynamics

The impact of head-worn devices in an auditory-aided visual search task

Head-worn devices (HWDs) interfere with the natural transmission of sound from the source to the ears of the listener, worsening their localization abilities. The localization errors introduced by HWDs have been mostly studied in static scenarios, but these errors are reduced if head movements are allowed. We studied the effect of 12 HWDs on an auditory-cued visual search task, where head movements were not restricted. In this task, a visual target had to be identified in a three-dimensional space with the help of an acoustic stimulus emitted from the same location as the visual target. The results showed an increase in the search time caused by the HWDs. Acoustic measurements of a dummy head wearing the studied HWDs showed evidence of impaired localization cues, which were used to estimate the perceived localization errors using computational auditory models of static localization. These models were able to explain the search-time differences in the perceptual task, showing the influence of quadrant errors in the auditory-aided visual search task. These results indicate that HWDs have an impact on sound-source localization even when head movements are possible, which may compromise the safety and the quality of experience of the wearer.

Auditory vertical localization in the median plane with conflicting dynamic interaural time difference and other elevation cues

Both dynamic variation of interaural time difference (ITD) and static spectral cues provide information for front-back discrimination and vertical localization. However, the contributions of the two cues are still unclear. The static spectral cue has conventionally been regarded as the dominant one. In the present work, psychoacoustic experiments were conducted to examine the contribution of dynamic ITD and static spectral cues to vertical localization in the median plane. By modifying the head-related transfer functions used in a dynamic virtual auditory display, binaural signals with conflicting dynamic ITD and spectral cues that were either static or dynamically modified according to instantaneous head position were created. The results indicated that the dynamic ITD and static spectral cues contribute to vertical localization at low and high frequencies, respectively. For full a bandwidth stimulus, conflicting dynamic ITD and static spectral cues usually result in two separated virtual sources at different elevations corresponding to the spatial information conveyed by the low- and high-frequency bands, respectively. In most cases, no fused localization occurs in the high-level cognition system. Therefore, dynamic ITD and static spectral cues contribute to vertical localization at different frequency ranges, and neither of them dominates vertical localization in the case of wideband stimuli.

Dynamic spectral cues do not affect human sound localization during small head movements

Natural listening involves a constant deployment of small head movement. Spatial listening is facilitated by head movements, especially when resolving front-back confusions, an otherwise common issue during sound localization under head-still conditions. The present study investigated which acoustic cues are utilized by human listeners to localize sounds using small head movements (below ±10° around the center). Seven normal-hearing subjects participated in a sound localization experiment in a virtual reality environment. Four acoustic cue stimulus conditions were presented (full spectrum, flattened spectrum, frozen spectrum, free-field) under three movement conditions (no movement, head rotations over the yaw axis and over the pitch axis). Localization performance was assessed using three metrics: lateral and polar precision error and front-back confusion rate. Analysis through mixed-effects models showed that even small yaw rotations provide a remarkable decrease in front-back confusion rate, whereas pitch rotations did not show much of an effect. Furthermore, MSS cues improved localization performance even in the presence of dITD cues. However, performance was similar between stimuli with and without dMSS cues. This indicates that human listeners utilize the MSS cues before the head moves, but do not rely on dMSS cues to localize sounds when utilizing small head movements.

Perceptual Matching of Room Acoustics for Auditory Augmented Reality in Small Rooms - Literature Review and Theoretical Framework

For the realization of auditory augmented reality (AAR), it is important that the room acoustical properties of the virtual elements are perceived in agreement with the acoustics of the actual environment. This perceptual matching of room acoustics is the subject reviewed in this paper. Realizations of AAR that fulfill the listeners’ expectations were achieved based on pre-characterization of the room acoustics, for example, by measuring acoustic impulse responses or creating detailed room models for acoustic simulations. For future applications, the goal is to realize an online adaptation in (close to) real-time. Perfect physical matching is hard to achieve with these practical constraints. For this reason, an understanding of the essential psychoacoustic cues is of interest and will help to explore options for simplifications. This paper reviews a broad selection of previous studies and derives a theoretical framework to examine possibilities for psychoacoustical optimization of room acoustical matching.