AMBIQUAL: Towards a Quality Metric for Headphone Rendered Compressed Ambisonic Spatial Audio
Spatial audio is essential for creating a sense of immersion in virtual environments. Efficient encoding methods are required to deliver spatial audio over networks without compromising Quality of Service (QoS). Streaming service providers such as YouTube typically transcode content into various bit...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-05-01
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| Series: | Applied Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/9/3188 |
| _version_ | 1797568898836463616 |
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| author | Miroslaw Narbutt Jan Skoglund Andrew Allen Michael Chinen Dan Barry Andrew Hines |
| author_facet | Miroslaw Narbutt Jan Skoglund Andrew Allen Michael Chinen Dan Barry Andrew Hines |
| author_sort | Miroslaw Narbutt |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Spatial audio is essential for creating a sense of immersion in virtual environments. Efficient encoding methods are required to deliver spatial audio over networks without compromising Quality of Service (QoS). Streaming service providers such as YouTube typically transcode content into various bit rates and need a perceptually relevant audio quality metric to monitor users’ perceived quality and spatial localization accuracy. The aim of the paper is two-fold. First, it is to investigate the effect of Opus codec compression on the quality of spatial audio as perceived by listeners using subjective listening tests. Secondly, it is to introduce AMBIQUAL, a full reference objective metric for spatial audio quality, which derives both listening quality and localization accuracy metrics directly from the B-format Ambisonic audio. We compare AMBIQUAL quality predictions with subjective quality assessments across a variety of audio samples which have been compressed using the Opus 1.2 codec at various bit rates. Listening quality and localization accuracy of first and third-order Ambisonics were evaluated. Several fixed and dynamic audio sources (single and multiple) were used to evaluate localization accuracy. Results show good correlation regarding listening quality and localization accuracy between objective quality scores using AMBIQUAL and subjective scores obtained during listening tests. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T20:03:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-552d6f3f67a14cc7ae6987e397c6a82b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-3417 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T20:03:29Z |
| publishDate | 2020-05-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Applied Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-552d6f3f67a14cc7ae6987e397c6a82b2023-11-19T23:23:56ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172020-05-01109318810.3390/app10093188AMBIQUAL: Towards a Quality Metric for Headphone Rendered Compressed Ambisonic Spatial AudioMiroslaw Narbutt0Jan Skoglund1Andrew Allen2Michael Chinen3Dan Barry4Andrew Hines5School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Technological University Dublin, D08 NF82 Dublin 8, IrelandChrome Media, Google, San Francisco, CA 94105, USAChrome Media, Google, San Francisco, CA 94105, USAChrome Media, Google, San Francisco, CA 94105, USASchool of Computer Science, University College Dublin, D04 N2E5 Dublin 4, IrelandSchool of Computer Science, University College Dublin, D04 N2E5 Dublin 4, IrelandSpatial audio is essential for creating a sense of immersion in virtual environments. Efficient encoding methods are required to deliver spatial audio over networks without compromising Quality of Service (QoS). Streaming service providers such as YouTube typically transcode content into various bit rates and need a perceptually relevant audio quality metric to monitor users’ perceived quality and spatial localization accuracy. The aim of the paper is two-fold. First, it is to investigate the effect of Opus codec compression on the quality of spatial audio as perceived by listeners using subjective listening tests. Secondly, it is to introduce AMBIQUAL, a full reference objective metric for spatial audio quality, which derives both listening quality and localization accuracy metrics directly from the B-format Ambisonic audio. We compare AMBIQUAL quality predictions with subjective quality assessments across a variety of audio samples which have been compressed using the Opus 1.2 codec at various bit rates. Listening quality and localization accuracy of first and third-order Ambisonics were evaluated. Several fixed and dynamic audio sources (single and multiple) were used to evaluate localization accuracy. Results show good correlation regarding listening quality and localization accuracy between objective quality scores using AMBIQUAL and subjective scores obtained during listening tests.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/9/3188virtual realityspatial audioAmbisonicsaudio codingaudio compressionOpus codec |
| spellingShingle | Miroslaw Narbutt Jan Skoglund Andrew Allen Michael Chinen Dan Barry Andrew Hines AMBIQUAL: Towards a Quality Metric for Headphone Rendered Compressed Ambisonic Spatial Audio Applied Sciences virtual reality spatial audio Ambisonics audio coding audio compression Opus codec |
| title | AMBIQUAL: Towards a Quality Metric for Headphone Rendered Compressed Ambisonic Spatial Audio |
| title_full | AMBIQUAL: Towards a Quality Metric for Headphone Rendered Compressed Ambisonic Spatial Audio |
| title_fullStr | AMBIQUAL: Towards a Quality Metric for Headphone Rendered Compressed Ambisonic Spatial Audio |
| title_full_unstemmed | AMBIQUAL: Towards a Quality Metric for Headphone Rendered Compressed Ambisonic Spatial Audio |
| title_short | AMBIQUAL: Towards a Quality Metric for Headphone Rendered Compressed Ambisonic Spatial Audio |
| title_sort | ambiqual towards a quality metric for headphone rendered compressed ambisonic spatial audio |
| topic | virtual reality spatial audio Ambisonics audio coding audio compression Opus codec |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/9/3188 |
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