Assessing the Plausibility of Virtual Acoustic Environments

Lindau, Alexander; Weinzierl, Stefan

doi:10.3813/aaa.918562

Cited by 76 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…The listener must wear the headphones throughout the experiment, which will affect the sound transmission from the external loudspeakers. A number of discrimination studies have involved direct comparison of real sources with headphone-delivered virtual sources [9][10][11][12][13] as well as some recent localization tests [14,15] and loudness equalization studies [16,17]. The passive use of headphones may have a significant effect on the perception of the external loudspeaker and therefore cause an unknown and possibly directionally dependent bias.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of Headphones on the Localization of External Loudspeaker Sources

Satongar¹,

Pike²,

Lam³

et al. 2015

J. Audio Eng. Soc.

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When validating systems that use headphones to synthesize virtual sound sources, a direct comparison between virtual and real sources is sometimes needed. This paper considers the passive influence of headphones on the sound transmission and perception of external loudspeaker sources, for which physical measurements and behavioral data have been obtained. Physical measurements of the effect of a number of headphone models are given and analyzed using an auditory filter bank and binaural cue extraction. These highlighted that all of the headphones had an effect on localization cues and repositioning had a measurable effect. A localization test was undertaken using one of the best performing headphones from the measurements. It was found that the presence of the headphones caused a small increase in localization error and that the process of judging source location was different, highlighting a possible increase in the complexity of the localization task. INTRODUCTIONThe use of binaural rendering is popular in a number of audio applications-from hearing research [1-3] to entertainment [4,5]. In each application, the specific requirements for the performance of a binaural system will be slightly different although generally, the aim is to induce the perception of intended auditory events as accurately as possible. Designing an assessment methodology that validates a binaural system within its intended application is often a difficult task. A common metric for a binaural system is the ability to produce a virtual sound source that is indistinguishable from a real sound source. Indirect comparisons have been investigated, for example, by Minnaar et al. [6] and Møller et al. [7,8] in which non-dynamic binaural simulation and real loudspeaker localization tasks were considered in separated experiments. However, for direct comparisons where real and virtual loudspeakers are presented simultaneously, the validation of headphone-based binaural systems against a real loudspeaker reference can be problematic. The listener must wear the headphones throughout the experiment, which will affect the sound transmission from the external loudspeakers. A number of discrimination studies have involved direct comparison of real sources with headphone-delivered virtual sources [9-13] as well as some recent localization tests [14,15] and loudness equalization studies [16,17]. The passive use of headphones may have a significant effect on the perception of the external loudspeaker and therefore cause an unknown and possibly directionally dependent bias. Hartmann and Wittenberg [10] noted that wearing headphones appeared to affect the listeners' ability to distinguish between front and back, although they also state that they were not aware of its effect on experiments in the azimuthal plane. To highlight the importance of the problem, Erbes et al.[18] presented work on the development of an advanced headphone system specifically for the field of binaural reproduction.This study investigates whether headphones mounted on a listener will ...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of Headphones on the Localization of External Loudspeaker Sources

Satongar¹,

Pike²,

Lam³

et al. 2015

J. Audio Eng. Soc.

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“…1 Even non-individual dynamic binaural simulations recorded with a dummy head have been shown to provide plausible simulations. 12,13 The involved participants, nevertheless, always reported audible differences, even if these did not help them to identify reality or simulation as such.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…For this purpose, the plausibility and the authenticity of virtual acoustic environments were proposed as overall criteria for the simulated acoustical scene as well as for the quality of the systems they are generated with. While the plausibility of a simulation refers to the agreement with the listener's expectation toward a corresponding real event (agreement to an internal reference), 12 the authenticity refers to the perceptual identity with an explicitly presented real event (agreement to an external reference, Blauert, p. 373). 1 Even non-individual dynamic binaural simulations recorded with a dummy head have been shown to provide plausible simulations.…”

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confidence: 99%

On the authenticity of individual dynamic binaural synthesis

Brinkmann¹,

Lindau²,

Weinzierl³

2017

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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A simulation that is perceptually indistinguishable from the corresponding real sound field could be termed authentic. Using binaural technology, such a simulation would theoretically be achieved by reconstructing the sound pressure at a listener's ears. However, inevitable errors in the measurement, rendering, and reproduction introduce audible degradations, as it has been demonstrated in previous studies for anechoic environments and static binaural simulations (fixed head orientation). The current study investigated the authenticity of individual dynamic binaural simulations for three different acoustic environments (anechoic, dry, wet) using a highly sensitive listening test design. The results show that about half of the participants failed to reliably detect any differences for a speech stimulus, whereas all participants were able to do so for pulsed pink noise. Higher detection rates were observed in the anechoic condition, compared to the reverberant spaces, while the source position had no significant effect. It is concluded that the authenticity mainly depends on how comprehensive the spectral cues are provided by the audio content, and the amount of reverberation, whereas the source position plays a minor role. This is confirmed by a broad qualitative evaluation, suggesting that remaining differences mainly affect the tone color rather than the spatial, temporal or dynamical qualities.

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“…This involves the development of quality metrics similar to PEAQ (PEAQ, 1999) and extensions towards 3D audio, and psychoacoustic models of plausibility and corresponding psychometric tests vocabulary and test methods (Lindau, Weinzierl, 2012;Lindau et al, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Virtual Acoustics

Vorländer¹

2015

Archives of Acoustics

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Virtual Reality (VR) systems are used in engineering, architecture, design and in applications of biomedical research. The component of acoustics in such VR systems enables the creation of audio-visual stimuli for applications in room acoustics, building acoustics, automotive acoustics, environmental noise control, machinery noise control, and hearing research. The basis is an appropriate acoustic simulation and auralization technique together with signal processing tools. Auralization is based on time-domain modelling of the components of sound source characterization, sound propagation, and on spatial audio technology. Whether the virtual environment is considered sufficiently accurate or not, depends on many perceptual factors, and on the pre-conditioning and immersion of the user in the virtual environment. In this paper the processing steps for creation of Virtual Acoustic Environments and the achievable degree of realism are briefly reviewed. Applications are discussed in examples of room acoustics, archeological acoustics, aircraft noise, and audiology.

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Assessing the Plausibility of Virtual Acoustic Environments

Cited by 76 publications

References 11 publications

The Influence of Headphones on the Localization of External Loudspeaker Sources

The Influence of Headphones on the Localization of External Loudspeaker Sources

On the authenticity of individual dynamic binaural synthesis

Virtual Acoustics

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