Optimizing the microphone array size for a virtual artificial head

Authors

  • Mina Fallahi Institut f¨ur H¨ortechnik und Audiologie, Jade Hochschule Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
  • Matthias Blau Institut f¨ur H¨ortechnik und Audiologie, Jade Hochschule Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
  • Martin Hansen Institut f¨ur H¨ortechnik und Audiologie, Jade Hochschule Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
  • Simon Doclo Department of Medical Physics and Acoustics and Cluster of Excellence Hearing4All, Carl von Ossietzky Universit¨at Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
  • Steven van de Par Department of Medical Physics and Acoustics and Cluster of Excellence Hearing4All, Carl von Ossietzky Universit¨at Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
  • Dirk Püschel Akustik Technologie G¨ottingen, G¨ottingen, Germany

Keywords:

Microphone Array, HRTF, Beamforming, Psychoacoustics, Binaural Synthesis

Abstract

As an alternative to traditional artificial heads, individual head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) can be synthesized with a virtual artificial head (VAH) consisting of a multi-microphone array in combination with filter-and-sum signal processing. The accuracy of the synthesis depends, amongst others, on the number of microphones in the array and on its topology (array size and microphone positions). In this study the effect of microphone array size on the synthesis accuracy was investigated. Five simulated microphone arrays of different sizes were used to synthesize individual HRTFs in the horizontal plane. Objective results in terms of spectral distortion and ILD deviation as well as subjective results with 10 participants showed that array size has a major effect and that the synthesis accuracy can be improved by carefully choosing an appropriate array size.

References

Doclo, S., and Moonen, M. (2003). “Design of broadband beamformers robust against gain and phase errors in the microphone array characteristics,” IEEE T. Signal Proces., 51, 2511-2526. doi: 10.1109/TSP.2003.816885

Fallahi, M., Hansen, M., Doclo, S., van de Par, S., Mellert, V., P¨uschel, D., and Blau, M. (2017). “High spatial resolution binaural sound reproduction using a virtual artificial head,” Fortschritte der Akustik, DAGA 2017, Kiel, Germany, pp. 1061-1064.

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Rasumow, E., Blau, M., Doclo, S., van de Par, S., Hansen, M., P¨uschel, D., and Mellert, V.(2017). “Perceptual evaluation of individualized binaural reproduction using a virtual artificial head,” J. Audio Eng. Soc., 65, 448-459. doi: 10.17743/jaes.2017.0012

Ward, D.B., Kennedy, R.A., andWilliamson, R.C. (2001). “Constant directivity beamforming,” in Microphone Arrays, Signal Processing Techniques and Applications, Eds. M. Brandstein and D. Ward (Berlin Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag), pp. 3-18.
Adaptive processes in hearing

Additional Files

Published

2018-01-09

How to Cite

Fallahi, M., Blau, M., Hansen, M., Doclo, S., van de Par, S., & Püschel, D. (2018). Optimizing the microphone array size for a virtual artificial head. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research, 6, 359–366. Retrieved from https://proceedings.isaar.eu/index.php/isaarproc/article/view/2017-44

Issue

Vol. 6 (2017): Adaptive Processes in Hearing

Section

2017/6. Advances in hearing-instrument features and related effects

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