Assessing the Impact of Head-Related Transfer Function Individualization on Task Performance: Case of a Virtual Reality Shooter Game

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an extended experiment to assess the impact of individualized binaural rendering on player performance in an ecologically valid use context, specifically that of a VR "shooter game," as part of a larger project to characterize the impact of binaural rendering quality in various VR type applications. Participants played a simple game in which they were faced with successive targets approaching from random directions on a sphere. While audiovisual cues allowed for general target localization, only sections of the game that relied on audio cues were used for analysis. Two HRTF exposure protocols were used, comprising best and worst-match HRTFs from a "perceptually orthogonal" optimized set of HRTFs, during the course of six game sessions. Two groups performed the game sessions exclusively using either their best or worst-match HRTF. Two additional groups performed the game sessions alternating between best and worst-match HRTFs. Results suggest that HRTF quality had minimal general impact on in-game participant performance and improvement rate. However, performance for extreme elevation target positions was affected by the quality of HRTF matching. In addition, a subgroup of participants showed higher sensitivity to HRTF choice than others.

Adapting to altered auditory cues: Generalization from manual reaching to head pointing

“…In addition, it was characterised by the presence of goal-directed actions toward each sound. We built on works in which interactions with sound sources occurred using reaching movements, as in some pioneers VR approaches [ 21 , 22 ] and more recent studies [ 23 ]. A motor approach based on hand movements in the space of the sound sources has also been adopted by Valzolgher and colleagues [ 13 ], in a study that demonstrated the effect of kinesthetic cues when re-learning to localize sounds with one ear plugged, as here.…”

“…In addition, adapting to new auditory cues may be easier through motor interactions with the sound sources, using tasks in which acoustic stimulation results from the subjects’ own movements [ 13 ] or in which participants are encouraged to act towards sounds [ 19 , 20 ]. For instance, participants could be asked to hit a moving sound presented in a virtual auditory space using a hand-held tool [ 21 , 22 ], or to shoot audio-visual moving targets in virtual reality [ 23 ]. Other relevant examples include the work of Steadman and colleagues, in which participants were required to actively point their head toward sounds [ 24 ].…”

On the improvement of accommodation to non-individual HRTFs via VR active learning and inclusion of a 3D room response

“…The premise of the present study is that HRTF selection can be reduced to its essential: that given the variance on bestmatch selection [17,18], and its limited impact on immediate localization performance [6,18], it is preferable to capitalize on training to improve localization accuracy. Still, previous studies have shown that using perceptually poorly-rated HRTFs led to a significant increase in adaptation time compared to best-rated ones [6,19].…”

The SONICOM Project: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Immersive Audio, From Personalization to Modeling [Applications Corner]

“…Combining the desire for robust evaluation techniques with realistic use cases requires a delicate balance of experimental design in order to present a real-world like context while still maintaining the required laboratory controllability in order to obtain meaningful exploitable data (e.g. [12]).…”