title: Influence of head tracking on the externalization of speech stimuli for non-individualized binaural synthesis.
abstract: Binaural reproduction aims at recreating a realistic audio scene at the ears of the listener using headphones. In the real acoustic world, sound sources tend to be externalized (that is, perceived to be emanating from a source out in the world) rather than internalized (that is, perceived to be emanating from inside the head). Unfortunately, several studies report a collapse of externalization, especially with frontal and rear virtual sources, when listening to binaural content using non-individualized Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs). The present study examines whether or not head movements coupled with a head tracking device can compensate for this collapse. For each presentation, a speech stimulus was presented over headphones at different azimuths, using several intermixed sets of non-individualized HRTFs for the binaural rendering. The head tracker could either be active or inactive, and the subjects could either be asked to rotate their heads or to keep them as stationary as possible. After each presentation, subjects reported to what extent the stimulus had been externalized. In contrast to several previous studies, results showed that head movements can substantially enhance externalization, especially for frontal and rear sources, and that externalization can persist once the subject has stopped moving his/her head.
authors.affiliation: Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, 209, Avenue Jean-Jaurès, 75019 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Etienne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hendrickx
authors.affiliation: Audio Acoustics Group, Laboratoire d'Informatique pour la Mécanique et les Sciences de l'Ingénieur, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay, France.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Stitt
authors.affiliation: Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, 209, Avenue Jean-Jaurès, 75019 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Christophe
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Messonnier
authors.affiliation: Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, 209, Avenue Jean-Jaurès, 75019 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Marc
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Lyzwa
authors.affiliation: Sorbonne Universités, Université Pierre et Marie Curie Univ Paris 06, CNRS, Institut d'Alembert, 75005 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Brian Fg
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Katz
authors.affiliation: Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, 209, Avenue Jean-Jaurès, 75019 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: de Boishéraud
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000162:Acoustics / Q000295:instrumentation; D000328:Adult; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D019416:Head Movements; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013017:Sound Localization; D013067:Speech Perception; D055815:Young Adult