Distance Perception in Interactive Virtual Acoustic Environments using First and Higher Order Ambisonic Sound Fields

Kearney, Gavin; Gorzel, Marcin; Rice, Henry J.; Boland, Frank

doi:10.3813/aaa.918492

Cited by 33 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Kearney et al demonstrate evidence that higher order ambisonics technology, a form of 3D audio that implements multiple channels by decomposing the soundfield at a specific point into spherical harmonic functions (i.e. functions defined in terms of spherical coordinates), results in similar compression to that of the real world [15]. Spatial audio has a wide variety of applications, such as an interactive display using speaker arrays to implement a spatial music mixing room [25], and has been shown to provide an immersive experience.…”

Section: Compression In Acoustic Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compensating for Distance Compression in Audiovisual Virtual Environments Using Incongruence

Finnegan

O’Neill

Proulx

2016

Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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A key requirement for a sense of presence in Virtual Environments (VEs) is for a user to perceive space as naturally as possible. One critical aspect is distance perception. When judging distances, compression is a phenomenon where humans tend to underestimate the distance between themselves and target objects (termed egocentric or absolute compression), and between other objects (exocentric or relative compression). Results of studies in virtual worlds rendered through head mounted displays are striking, demonstrating significant distance compression error. Distance compression is a multisensory phenomenon, where both audio and visual stimuli are often compressed with respect to their distances from the observer. In this paper, we propose and test a method for reducing crossmodal distance compression in VEs. We report an empirical evaluation of our method via a study of 3D spatial perception within a virtual reality (VR) head mounted display. Applying our method resulted in more accurate distance perception in a VE at longer range, and suggests a modification that could adaptively compensate for distance compression at both shorter and longer ranges. Our results have a significant and intriguing implication for designers of VEs: an incongruent audiovisual display, i.e. where the audio and visual information is intentionally misaligned, may lead to better spatial perception of a virtual scene.

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Section: Compression In Acoustic Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compensating for Distance Compression in Audiovisual Virtual Environments Using Incongruence

Finnegan

O’Neill

Proulx

2016

Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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“…In regard to depth, participants succeed in distinguish the three distances sound sources with an underestimation for far targets compared to near ones during stating listening. The commonness of errors in distance localization is well-established (Brungart, 1999;Kearney et al, 2010;Zahorik 2002;2005;Zahorik & Wightman 2001;Middlebrooks & Green, 1991;Parseihian et al, 2014). Sound distance cues such as binaural cue and interaural level difference (Brungart, 1999) are important for distance localization in the near-head acoustic field and not affected by the HMD.…”

Section: Current Limitation Of Our Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

SPHERE: A novel approach to 3D and active sound localization

(Fabien)

Coudert

Salemme

et al. 2020

Preprint

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In everyday life, localizing a sound source in free-field entails more than the sole extraction of monaural and binaural auditory cues to define its location in the three-dimensions (azimuth, elevation and distance). In spatial hearing, we also take into account all the available visual information (e.g., cues to sound position, cues to the structure of the environment), and we resolve perceptual ambiguities through active listening behavior, exploring the auditory environment with head or/and body movements. Here we introduce a novel approach to sound localization in 3D named SPHERE (European patent n° WO2017203028A1), which exploits a commercially available Virtual Reality Head-mounted display system with real-time kinematic tracking to combine all of these elements (controlled positioning of a real sound source and recording of participants' responses in 3D, controlled visual stimulations and active listening behavior). We prove that SPHERE allows accurate sampling of the 3D spatial hearing abilities of normal hearing adults, and it allowed detecting and quantifying the contribution of active listening. Specifically, comparing static vs. free head-motion during sound emission we found an improvement of sound localization accuracy and precisions. By combining visual virtual reality, real-time kinematic tracking and real-sound delivery we have achieved a novel approach to the study of spatial hearing, with the potentials to capture real-life behaviors in laboratory conditions. Furthermore, our new approach also paves the way for clinical and industrial applications that will leverage the full potentials of active listening and multisensory stimulation intrinsic to the SPHERE approach for the purpose rehabilitation and product assessment.

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“…In other words, the visual stimuli were presented on a stereoscopic display in a space that was distinct from the virtual environment and the audio stimuli were represented over a loudspeaker array. In the experiments, the audio stimuli were rendered over headphones using a virtual loudspeaker array 8,9 which overcomes the sweet spot limitations of real loudspeaker arrays and mitigates against the influence of the test space on the audio signal.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Depth perception of audio sources in stereo 3D environments

et al. 2013

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In this paper we undertook perceptual experiments to determine the allowed differences in depth between audio and visual stimuli in stereoscopic-3D environments while being perceived as congruent. We also investigated whether the nature of the environment and stimuli affects the perception of congruence. This was achieved by creating an audio-visual environment consisting of a photorealistic visual environment captured by a camera under orthostereoscopic conditions and a virtual audio environment generated by measuring the acoustic properties of the real environment. The visual environment consisted of a room with a loudspeaker or person forming the visual stimulus and was presented to the viewer using a passive stereoscopic display. Pink noise samples and female speech were used as audio stimuli which were presented over headphones using binaural renderings. The stimuli were generated at different depths from the viewer and the viewer was asked to determine whether the audio stimulus was nearer, further away or at the same depth as the visual stimulus. From our experiments it is shown that there is a significant range of depth differences for which audio and visual stimuli are perceived as congruent. Furthermore, this range increases as the depth of the visual stimulus increases.

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Distance Perception in Interactive Virtual Acoustic Environments using First and Higher Order Ambisonic Sound Fields

Cited by 33 publications

References 12 publications

Compensating for Distance Compression in Audiovisual Virtual Environments Using Incongruence

Compensating for Distance Compression in Audiovisual Virtual Environments Using Incongruence

SPHERE: A novel approach to 3D and active sound localization

Depth perception of audio sources in stereo 3D environments

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