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Journal Article

Accelerated Interactive Auralization of Highly Reverberant Spaces Using Graphics Hardware

Authors: Rosseel, Hannes; Van Waterschoot, Toon

Journal of the Audio Engineering Society · Volume 74 · Issue 6 · pp. 445–455 · June 2026

Abstract

Interactive acoustic auralization allows users to explore virtual acoustic environments in real time, enabling the acoustic recreation of concert hall or historical worship spaces that are either no longer accessible, acoustically altered, or impractical to visit. Interactive acoustic synthesis requires real-time convolution of input signals with a set of synthesis filters that model the space-time acoustic response of the space. The acoustics in concert halls and historical worship spaces are both characterized by a long reverberation time, resulting in synthesis filters containing many filter taps. As a result, the convolution process can be computationally demanding, introducing significant latency that limits the real-time interactivity of the auralization system. In this paper, the implementation of a real-time multichannel loudspeaker-based auralization system is presented. This system is capable of synthesizing the acoustics of highly reverberant spaces in real-time using GPU acceleration. A comparison between traditional CPU-based convolution and GPU-accelerated convolution is presented, showing that the latter can achieve real-time performance with significantly lower latency. Additionally, the system integrates acoustic synthesis with acoustic feedback cancellation on the GPU, creating a unified loudspeaker-based auralization framework that minimizes processing latency.

Details

Publication
Journal of the Audio Engineering Society
Volume
74
Issue
6
Pages
445–455
Publication date
June 8, 2026
Affiliation
KU Leuven, Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), STADIUS Center for Dynamical Systems, Signal Processing and Data Analytics, Leuven, Belgium; KU Leuven, Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), STADIUS Center for Dynamical Systems, Signal Processing and Data Analytics, Leuven, Belgium (See document for exact affiliation information.)
Type
Journal Article