High-resolution room virtualization using first-order source-and-receiver-directional room impulse responses

Abstract

Virtual acoustic environments benefit from involving the source and receiver directivity to become fully interactive. In this contribution we discuss virtualization of a room based on measured source-and-receiver-directional room impulse responses (SRD RIR), captured by first-order-directional source and receiver arrays. Low order arrays may in some ways overcome a directional versus temporal resolution trade off one encounters in directional measurements. This is done by employing the spatial decomposition method of room impulse responses on both the first-order source and receiver side. We discuss the result of these resolution-enhanced and efficiently measured SRD RIR based on a comparative listening experiment involving the variable-directivity icosahedral loudspeaker (IKO), a spherical beamforming loudspeaker array, whose perceptual sculptural effects have been studied in a room. For the virtualization of the IKO, high resolution directivity measurement of the IKO are inserted, and for its rendering, a high-resolution set of head related impulse responses (HRIRs).