Toward a Standard Listener-Independent HRTF to Facilitate Long-Term Adaptation

Lladó P, Pollack K, Meyer-Kahlen N. Toward a Standard Listener-Independent HRTF to Facilitate Long-Term Adaptation. J Audio Eng Soc. 2024;72(4):188-192. doi:10.17743/jaes.2022.0134

@article{Llado2024_22389,
  author = {Lladó, Pedro and Pollack, Katharina and Meyer-Kahlen, Nils},
  title = {{Toward a Standard Listener-Independent HRTF to Facilitate Long-Term Adaptation}},
  journal = {Journal of the Audio Engineering Society},
  volume = {72},
  number = {4},
  pages = {188--192},
  year = {2024},
  month = apr,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  doi = {10.17743/jaes.2022.0134},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2022.0134}
}

TY  - JOUR
TI  - Toward a Standard Listener-Independent HRTF to Facilitate Long-Term Adaptation
AU  - Lladó, Pedro
AU  - Pollack, Katharina
AU  - Meyer-Kahlen, Nils
T2  - Journal of the Audio Engineering Society
J2  - J. Audio Eng. Soc.
VL  - 72
IS  - 4
SP  - 188
EP  - 192
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/04/06
DO  - 10.17743/jaes.2022.0134
UR  - https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2022.0134
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - Head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) are used in auditory applications for spatializing virtual sound sources. Listener-specific HRTFs, which aim at mimicking the filtering of the head, torso, and pinnae of a specific listener, improve the perceived quality of virtual sound compared to using non-individualized HRTFs. However, using listener-specific HRTFs may not be accessible for everyone. Here, the authors propose as an alternative to take advantage of the adaptation abilities of human listeners to a new set of HRTFs. They claim that agreeing upon a single listener-independent set of HRTFs has beneficial effects for long-term adaptation compared to using several, potentially severely different HRTFs. Thus, the Non-individual Ear MOdel (NEMO) initiative is a first step toward a standardized listener-independent set of HRTFs to be used across applications as an alternative to individualization. A prototype, NEMObeta, is presented to explicitly encourage external feedback from the spatial audio community and to agree on a complete list of requirements for the future HRTF selection.
ER  -