Development of the fast measurement system for the listener’s own head-related impulse responses

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Vol. 120; no. 5_Supplement; p. 3094
• Main Authors: Fukudome, Kimitoshi, Tashiro, Yusuke, Takenouchi, Kazuki, Samejima, Toshiya, Ono, Naoki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: 01.11.2006
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.4787508

Three-dimensional (3-D) spacial sound reproduction through headphones or earphones is best realized for subjects by the use of their own head-related impulse responses (HRIRs). Although HRIR measurements are so extremely time consuming, better externalized HRIRs for subjects must be collected in order to develop future 3-D applications. The fast measurement system for the listener’s own HRIRs was constructed based on the continuous measurement method with a subject sitting on a servo-swiveled chair (SSC), and together with a loud speaker elevation arm controlled by a stepping motor. It can greatly reduce the subject burden in HRIR measurements. HRIRs for all azimuthal directions at 29 elevations can be measured in 1 h, constituting a reduction by a factor of 3 of the amount of time required as compared to systems composed of an SSC and a conventional manual elevation system. In the presentation, principles of the fast measurement system and the specifications of the loud speaker elevation arm are described. Performance evaluations are presented in terms of the measurement accuracies by the signal-to-deviation ratio and the spectral distortion, and further the reproducibility in repetitive measurements. [Work supported by the specific project research in the Faculty of Design, 2005.]