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Journal of the Acoustical Society of America / Volume 131 / Issue 2 / JASA EXPRESS LETTERS

Perceptually based head-related transfer function database optimization

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 131, Issue 2, pp. EL99-EL105 (2012); (7 pages)

Brian F. G. Katz and Gaëtan Parseihian

LIMSI-CNRS, BP 133, Universit Paris Sud, Orsay, France Brian.Katz@limsi.fr, Gaetan.Parseihian@limsi.fr

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In the context of binaural audio rendering, choosing the best head-related transfer function (HRTF) for an individual from large databases poses several problems. This study proposes a method to reduce the size of a given HRTF database. Participants, 45 in total, were asked to rate the quality of binaural synthesis for 46 HRTFs. The lack of reciprocity in the ratings was noted. Results were used to create a perceptually optimized HRTF subset which satisfied all participants’ judgments. The subset was validated using localization tests on a separate group of subjects with results showing reduced errors when subjects were given their best choice, rather than their worst choice HRTF.

© 2012 Acoustical Society of America

Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by the French National Research Agency (ANR) through the TecSan program (Grant No. NAVIG ANR-08TECS-011) and the Midi-Pyrénées region through the APRRTT program.

Article Outline

  1. Introduction
  2. HRTF database
  3. Perceptual evaluation
  4. Database reduction
  5. Database subset validation
    1. HRTF subset selection
    2. Localization task
    3. Results
  6. Discussion

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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

hearing

PACS

ARTICLE DATA

History
Received 30 Sep 2011
Accepted 01 Dec 2011
Published online 13 Jan 2012
Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.3672641

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

0001-4966 (print)  

Publisher

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef Acoustical Society of America

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Figures (1) Tables (1)

Figures (click on thumbnails to view enlargements)

FIG.1
(Color online) (a) Subjective HRTF rating test results: (×) bad; (·) ok; (•) excellent. (Ο) = trans-pose of excellent (•T). Lowercase identifiers represent subjects while uppercase represents the corresponding subject’s HRTF. Note: subject aj did not participate but HRTF AJ was included in the test. Split boxplot-histogram of the magnitude of (b) lateral angular error and (c) polar angular error, by group. Boxplot and angular error scale at the left; histogram value legend color bar on the right. Mean values are represented by •.

FIG.1 Download High Resolution Image (.zip file) | Export Figure to PowerPoint

Tables

Table I. Percentage of error according to type and mean linear regression analysis. Variances shown in parentheses.

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