Abstract:
Auralization has the potential for assessing the difficulties faced by listeners in nonideal conditions. Thus simulated environments were created using a commercial auralization system from Tucker--Davis Technologies. A small reverberant test room was simulated in order to present test stimuli to subjects binaurally. This simulation took into account direct sound, the six first-order reflections, an approximate reverberant tail to account for higher-order reflections, the reflective properties of the room's surfaces, the head-related transfer functions, and the source--receiver position in the room. To validate the simulation, the localization perception of listeners in the real and virtual environments were compared. In the real room, localization was accurate with feedback; without feedback approximately 10% of front--back confusions occurred. Localization performance in the virtual condition as compared to the real condition was found to be comparable. [Work supported by NSERC.]