The study aims to enhance the understanding of how Head-Tracked Spatial Audio technology influences both emotional responses and immersion levels among listeners. By employing micro facial gesture recognition technology, it quantifies the depth of immersion and the intensity of emotional responses elicited by various types of binaural content, measuring categories such as Neutral, Happy, Sad, Angry, Surprised, Scared, Disgusted, Contempt, Valence, and Arousal. Subjects were presented with a randomized set of audio stimuli consisting of stereo music, stereo speech. After consolidating the records of 78 participants, the final database consisted of 212,862 unique data points. It was determined that the average level of "Arousal" is significantly higher when Head Tracked Spatial Audio is activated compared to when it is deactivated, suggesting that HT technology increases the emotional arousal of audio listeners. In music, the increase in sadness suggests that HT deepens emotional immersion, even with traditionally negative emotions. Vocal stimuli showed increased happiness and reduced anger, indicating that HT optimizes emotional perception in communicative contexts. These findings suggest that HT not only intensifies emotional experiences but also modulates them based on the type of auditory content.
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