Transaural Audio - Die Wiedergabe von binauralen Signalen über Lautsprecher

Binaural sound reproduction over headphones aims at reproducing the localization cues of human auditory localization at the entrance of the ear canal. The relationship between the position of a sound source in three-dimensional space and the sound pressure at the left and right ear is typically represented by linear spatial filters, which are also referred to as head-related transfer functions (HRTFs). Both the interaural time / level differences (ITD / ILD) and spectral cues can be derived from the HRTF data. HRTF data is typically measured or computed by numerical methods for individual listeners or dummy-heads (mannequins). Because of the individual differences in the human anatomy the use of non-individualized HRTFs impairs localization accuracy. To spatialize a virtual sound source in three-dimensional space, the monophonic audio signal is convolved with the corresponding HRTFs to create the left and right ear signals.

Binaural sound reproduction is also possible over loudspeakers. Cross-talk cancellation (CTC) algorithms are applied to prevent the loudspeaker emitted signals to arrive at the opposite ear, therefore simulating binaural signals at the listener’s ears.

This project aims at improving the localization accuracy and overall sound quality of different algorithms for transaural audio known from literature. The main focus is to study the impact of matrix regularization on the sound quality. All algorithms are simulated in Matlab and further implemented for real-time systems in Max/Msp (Cycling’74).