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Conference Paper Open Access

Assessing the Potential Impact of Direction-Dependent HRTF Selection on Sound Localization Accuracy

Authors: Goldring, Sapir; Ben Hur, Zamir; Alon, David Lou; Rafaely, Boaz

AES 2024 International Conference on Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality · Paper 17 · August 2024

Abstract

This study investigates the approach of direction-dependent selection of Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs) and its impact on sound localization accuracy. For applications such as virtual reality (VR) and teleconferencing, obtaining individualized HRTFs can be beneficial yet challenging, the objective of this work is therefore to assess whether incorporating HRTFs in a direction-dependent manner could improve localization precision without the need to obtain individualized HRTFs. A localization experiment conducted with a VR headset assessed localization errors, comparing an overall best HRTF from a set, against selecting the best HRTF based on average performance in each direction. The results demonstrate a substantial improvement in elevation localization error with the method motivated by direction-dependent HRTF selection, while revealing insignificant differences in azimuth errors.

Details

Published in
AES 2024 International Conference on Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality
Paper number
17
Publication date
August 5, 2024
Session subject
Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality
Affiliation
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ben Gurion University of the Negev; Reality Labs Research, Meta, Redmond, WA 98052, USA; Reality Labs Research, Meta, Redmond, WA 98052, USA; School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ben Gurion University of the Negev (See document for exact affiliation information.)
Type
Conference Paper