Effect of auditory and visual stimuli on distance perception presented by head-mounted display and headphone

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between the effects of auditory and visual stimuli on the distance perception between the subjects themselves and the sound sources. As the auditory stimuli, the effect of the male speech voices and the binaural room impulse responses on the distance perception are comparatively investigated. The relative error of the estimated distances in various audiovisual conditions are discussed. It was found that the subjective impression of the distance to the sound source was effected by both the auditory and visual information, however the extent of the distance perception varied depending on the time variant characteristics of the reproduced sounds.