Investigation into Ventriloquism Effect Considering Indication of the Loudspeaker Position

Abstract

In this work, we investigated strength variations of the ventriloquism effect when the loudspeaker's position was indicated to the subject. The ventriloquism effect is an audiovisual cross‐modality in which a sound is heard from the position of an image, even though the sound and image are presented at different locations. Previously, this effect has been studied under conditions where the sound location is not revealed. In contrast, this paper proposes measuring the ventriloquism effect using a single loudspeaker displayed as a 3D scanned image in the background of a virtual reality (VR) image. The angular discrimination threshold (the perceived angle of disparity between the sound and the image shifted horizontally) was employed to evaluate the ventriloquism effect. The resulting ventriloquism effect was compared to the effect noted in a previous study, where measurements were conducted without revealing the loudspeaker's position to the subjects. The results indicate that revealing the loudspeaker's position emphasizes the ventriloquism effect. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.