Perceptual thresholds for angular decomposition of direct and reverberant sound in Spatial Room Impulse Responses

Cooper J, Daffern H, Kearney G. Perceptual thresholds for angular decomposition of direct and reverberant sound in Spatial Room Impulse Responses. In: AES Conference: AES 2023 International Conference on Spatial and Immersive Audio. Audio Engineering Society; 2023. Paper 38. Available from: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22180

@inproceedings{Cooper2023_22180,
  author = {Cooper, Jacob and Daffern, Helena and Kearney, Gavin},
  title = {{Perceptual thresholds for angular decomposition of direct and reverberant sound in Spatial Room Impulse Responses}},
  booktitle = {AES Conference: AES 2023 International Conference on Spatial and Immersive Audio},
  note = {Paper 38},
  year = {2023},
  month = aug,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  url = {https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22180}
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Perceptual thresholds for angular decomposition of direct and reverberant sound in Spatial Room Impulse Responses
AU  - Cooper, Jacob
AU  - Daffern, Helena
AU  - Kearney, Gavin
T2  - AES Conference: AES 2023 International Conference on Spatial and Immersive Audio
M1  - Paper 38
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/08/06
UR  - https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22180
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - Spatial Room Impulse Response (SRIR) measurements are commonly used as a means of auralisation, creating a virtual representation of a physical space. These measurements are taken at discrete source-receiver positions, however in many practical applications it is desirable to place both the source and receiver at alternative locations. This study evaluates the panning of the Direct Sound (DS) away from the early reflections and reverberant sound of the SRIR as a means of placing sound sources at alternative locations. Perceptual listening tests, using AB blind tests and a staircase method, were conducted on 21 expert listeners to establish the Just Noticeable Difference (JND) for this technique to be used to reposition sound sources. For electronic noise bursts, listeners showed a perceptual threshold of 9.8 degrees, and for speech, a threshold of 10.8 degrees. Below this threshold, less than 25% of listeners were able to discern a difference from the early reflections and DS being rendered at the same location, in an AB test. These results suggest that below a certain threshold, interpolation is not necessary to place a sound source at an alternative location, and instead the DS can be rotated.
ER  -