Perceptual Matching of Room Acoustics for Auditory Augmented Reality in Small Rooms - Literature Review and Theoretical Framework

Abstract

For the realization of auditory augmented reality (AAR), it is important that the room acoustical properties of the virtual elements are perceived in agreement with the acoustics of the actual environment. This perceptual matching of room acoustics is the subject reviewed in this paper. Realizations of AAR that fulfill the listeners’ expectations were achieved based on pre-characterization of the room acoustics, for example, by measuring acoustic impulse responses or creating detailed room models for acoustic simulations. For future applications, the goal is to realize an online adaptation in (close to) real-time. Perfect physical matching is hard to achieve with these practical constraints. For this reason, an understanding of the essential psychoacoustic cues is of interest and will help to explore options for simplifications. This paper reviews a broad selection of previous studies and derives a theoretical framework to examine possibilities for psychoacoustical optimization of room acoustical matching.

Separate effects of auditory and visual room size on auditorium seat preference: a virtual reality study

“…Other spatial room acoustic perception attributes like perceived room size, apparent source width (ASW, also called auditory source width), or listener envelopment have also been found to be affected by visual input (Cabrera et al, 2004; Larsson et al, 2001; Maempel & Jentsch, 2013; Valente & Braasch, 2010). A recent paper (Neidhardt et al, 2022) summarized studies relating to audiovisual perceptual matching in augmented reality. On the other hand, fewer studies have addressed audiovisual factors in auditorium preferences.…”

Spatial Subtraction of Reflections from Room Impulse Responses Measured with a Spherical Microphone Array

“…Equivalently, a recursive least squares (RLS) filter can be employed as in [7] if time-variant conditions are assumed. 1 IV. RENDERING…”

“…A UDIO for augmented reality (AR) aims at augmenting the real world with virtual sound sources that realistically blend into the acoustic scene. As part of such a system, the room acoustic rendering of virtual sources must be matched to the acoustics of the room in which the user is located [1], [2]. AR applications are often enabled by head-worn devices such as head-mounted displays (HMDs) or smart glasses.…”

Sensory and perceptual decisional processes underlying the perception of reverberant auditory environments

“…Finally, understanding the neural and perceptual correlates of reverberant acoustics also has applied implications, such as the efficient generation of perceptually realistic virtual acoustics in simulation, gaming, and music and film production-domains in which "real" vs. "fake" judgments are indeed made routinely, albeit often implicitly (Girón et al, 2020;Helmholz et al, 2022;Neidhardt et al, 2022;B. Shinn-Cunningham, 2005;Traer et al, 2021).…”