Enhanced reproduction of auditory image recorded using closely spaced stereo microphones

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a method for enhancing the width of auditory images that are recorded using closely spaced stereo microphones. To this end, the proposed method adjusts the inter-channel coherence (ICC) of a stereo sound source, where the degree of ICC is controlled using both a principal component analysis (PCA) technique and a finite-duration impulse response (FIR) decorrelator. In addition, a cascaded all-pass filter is employed to induce early reflections. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method on the perceived width of auditory images, objective and subjective tests were performed. It was shown from these tests that the proposed method could reduce the ICC, which improved the perceived width of an auditory image. ©2013 International Information Institute.