With the advent of virtual reality headsets, accurate rendering of the acoustics of the real space is critical to deliver a truly immersive experience. To ensure the veracity of immersion, there is a need to obtain high quality impulse responses that captures all the relevant acoustical features of the space. In this work we investigate and compare the perception of virtual acoustics rendered over headphones using impulse responses captured with (a) binaural dummy-head, and (b) multichannel (8-channel) microphone array. A downmixing algorithm is developed that converts the free-field 8-channel impulse responses to binaural for rendering over headphones. Subjective experiments suggest higher quality of immersion with reconstructed binaural from multichannel room impulse responses compared to the measured binaural room impulse responses. This investigation provides important information in understanding the essential elements in creating a convincing perception of an acoustic space.

Authors: Sunder, Kaushik; Woszczyk, Wieslaw
Affiliations: McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media dn Technology (CIRMMT), Montreal, Quebec, Canada(See document for exact affiliation information.)
AES Convention: 141 (September 2016) Paper Number: 9609
Publication Date: September 20, 2016
Subject: Acoustics, Transducers, and Audio

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