Binaural Modelling and Spatial Auditory Cue Analysis of 3D-Printed Ears
In this work, a binaural model resembling the human auditory system was built using a pair of three-dimensional (3D)-printed ears to localize a sound source in both vertical and horizontal directions. An analysis on the proposed model was firstly conducted to study the correlations between the spati...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Sensors |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/1/227 |
| _version_ | 1797542663916879872 |
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| author | Te Meng Ting Nur Syazreen Ahmad Patrick Goh Junita Mohamad-Saleh |
| author_facet | Te Meng Ting Nur Syazreen Ahmad Patrick Goh Junita Mohamad-Saleh |
| author_sort | Te Meng Ting |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In this work, a binaural model resembling the human auditory system was built using a pair of three-dimensional (3D)-printed ears to localize a sound source in both vertical and horizontal directions. An analysis on the proposed model was firstly conducted to study the correlations between the spatial auditory cues and the 3D polar coordinate of the source. Apart from the estimation techniques via interaural and spectral cues, the property from the combined direct and reverberant energy decay curve is also introduced as part of the localization strategy. The preliminary analysis reveals that the latter provides a much more accurate distance estimation when compared to approximations via sound pressure level approach, but is alone not sufficient to disambiguate the front-rear confusions. For vertical localization, it is also shown that the elevation angle can be robustly encoded through the spectral notches. By analysing the strengths and shortcomings of each estimation method, a new algorithm is formulated to localize the sound source which is also further improved by cross-correlating the interaural and spectral cues. The proposed technique has been validated via a series of experiments where the sound source was randomly placed at 30 different locations in an outdoor environment up to a distance of 19 m. Based on the experimental and numerical evaluations, the localization performance has been significantly improved with an average error of 0.5 m from the distance estimation and a considerable reduction of total ambiguous points to 3.3%. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T13:34:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-46ef590a9ae945cb89ddeb4fd004611a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T13:34:45Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj.art-46ef590a9ae945cb89ddeb4fd004611a2023-11-21T07:40:17ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202021-01-0121122710.3390/s21010227Binaural Modelling and Spatial Auditory Cue Analysis of 3D-Printed EarsTe Meng Ting0Nur Syazreen Ahmad1Patrick Goh2Junita Mohamad-Saleh3School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal 14300, Penang, MalaysiaSchool of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal 14300, Penang, MalaysiaSchool of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal 14300, Penang, MalaysiaSchool of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal 14300, Penang, MalaysiaIn this work, a binaural model resembling the human auditory system was built using a pair of three-dimensional (3D)-printed ears to localize a sound source in both vertical and horizontal directions. An analysis on the proposed model was firstly conducted to study the correlations between the spatial auditory cues and the 3D polar coordinate of the source. Apart from the estimation techniques via interaural and spectral cues, the property from the combined direct and reverberant energy decay curve is also introduced as part of the localization strategy. The preliminary analysis reveals that the latter provides a much more accurate distance estimation when compared to approximations via sound pressure level approach, but is alone not sufficient to disambiguate the front-rear confusions. For vertical localization, it is also shown that the elevation angle can be robustly encoded through the spectral notches. By analysing the strengths and shortcomings of each estimation method, a new algorithm is formulated to localize the sound source which is also further improved by cross-correlating the interaural and spectral cues. The proposed technique has been validated via a series of experiments where the sound source was randomly placed at 30 different locations in an outdoor environment up to a distance of 19 m. Based on the experimental and numerical evaluations, the localization performance has been significantly improved with an average error of 0.5 m from the distance estimation and a considerable reduction of total ambiguous points to 3.3%.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/1/2273D-printed earsbinaural modellingauditory cuesfront-rear confusions3D localization |
| spellingShingle | Te Meng Ting Nur Syazreen Ahmad Patrick Goh Junita Mohamad-Saleh Binaural Modelling and Spatial Auditory Cue Analysis of 3D-Printed Ears Sensors 3D-printed ears binaural modelling auditory cues front-rear confusions 3D localization |
| title | Binaural Modelling and Spatial Auditory Cue Analysis of 3D-Printed Ears |
| title_full | Binaural Modelling and Spatial Auditory Cue Analysis of 3D-Printed Ears |
| title_fullStr | Binaural Modelling and Spatial Auditory Cue Analysis of 3D-Printed Ears |
| title_full_unstemmed | Binaural Modelling and Spatial Auditory Cue Analysis of 3D-Printed Ears |
| title_short | Binaural Modelling and Spatial Auditory Cue Analysis of 3D-Printed Ears |
| title_sort | binaural modelling and spatial auditory cue analysis of 3d printed ears |
| topic | 3D-printed ears binaural modelling auditory cues front-rear confusions 3D localization |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/1/227 |
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