The role of spectral cues in the sound source to ear transfer function in median plane sound localization is investigated in this paper. At first, transfer functions were measured and analyzed. Then, these transfer functions were used in experiments where sounds from a source on the median plane were simulated and presented to subjects through headphones. In these simulation experiments, the transfer functions were smoothed by ARMA models with different degrees of simplification to investigate the role of microscopic and macroscopic patterns in the transfer functions for median plane localization. The results of the study are summarized as follows: (1) For front-rear judgment, information derived from microscopic peaks and dips in the low-frequency region (below 2 kHz) and the macroscopic patterns in the high-frequency region seems to be utilized; (2) for judgment of elevation angle, major cues exist in the high-frequency region above 5 kHz. The information in macroscopic patterns is utilized instead of that in small peaks and dips.
Transfer functions of acoustic systems often exhibit wide dynamic ranges and very long impulse responses. A ‘‘time-stretched’’ pulse as proposed by Aoshima (ATSP), though originally given in a very specific form seems to be one of the most promising signals to measure transfer functions with characteristics of acoustic system mentioned as above. In this paper, this pulse (ATSP) is first generalized and then optimized for the measurement of long impulse responses. This optimized ATSP (OATSP) has an almost ideal characteristic to measure impulse responses shorter than its specific length N. Moreover, it is newly shown in this paper that OATSP has also a good characteristic to measure impulse responses longer than N. Discussion is presented on how to design OATSP suitable for a specific situation of measurement by analyzing errors, when the pulse is used to measure impulse responses longer than N.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.