An integrated approach of 3D sound rendering techniques for sound externalization

Abstract

In this paper, a sound externalization method is proposed for out-of-the-head localization in headphone listening environments. Several externalization methods have been proposed that use either a head-related transfer function (HRTF) or early reflections. However, such conventional methods have drawbacks, e.g., timbre distortion due to the use of a measured HRTF or reverberation. On the other hand, the proposed externalization method integrates a model-based HRTF with reverberation. In addition, for improving frontal externalization performance, techniques such as decorrelation and spectral notch filtering are included. To evaluate the performance of the proposed externalization method, subjective listening tests are conducted by using different kinds of sound sources such as white noise, sound effects, speech, and music samples. It is shown from the test results that the proposed externalization method can localize sound sources farther away from out of the head than conventional methods. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.