On an efficient masking system using human head tracking parametric speaker system

Abstract

We investigated the feasibility of using a head-tracking parametric speaker system to steer a directional masker beam towards the head of the subject to be masked (maskee). The parametric speaker is placed on an iRobot-like platform, and tracks the maskee using the Kinect sensor. We investigated the tracking performance using a dummy head, and found it to be better than an actual human by about 10%. Mask samples will be recorded using the dummy head, and presented to listeners using headphones for masking evaluations. We will have results of the masking performance evaluation by the conference date.