Improvement of front-back sound localization characteristics in headphone-based 3D sound generation

Abstract

A binaural filtering method using HRTF database is generally used to make the headphone-based 3D sound. this method can create some confusion between the front and back directions or between the up and down directions due to the non-individual HRTF that depends on each listener. To reduce the confusion of sound image localization, we propose a new method to boost the spectral cue by modifying the HRTF spectra with spectrum difference between the front and back directions. Informal listening tests show that the proposed method improves the front-back sound localization characteristics much better than the conventional methods