Perceptual limits for detecting interaural-cue manipulations measured in reverberant settings

Abstract

In this study Binaural Room Impulse Responses (BRIRs) were manipulated to determine the Just Noticeable Differences in the Interaural Time Delay (ITD), Interaural Level Difference (ILD), and Interaural Cross-Correlation (ICC) in reverberant settings. The BRIR were split in two sections, the first 75 to 150 ms of the BRIR was found to be direction dependent, and for this first part either an extra ITD or ILD was applied. These manipulations were expected to change the perceived direction of the sound source. Changes in the ICC were applied to the remaining part of the BRIR, which was expected to change the overall spatial impression, but not the perceived location. Each of these three differently manipulated BRIRs was convolved with an anechoic musical instrument and the just noticeable change in ITD, ILD, or ICC was determined in a listening experiment. Due to the convolution with a temporally varying musical instrument stimulus, a complex spectro-temporal pattern of binaural cues is created. An analysis of these cues will be presented and it will be compared to the listening test results. This analysis will be based on a model of human auditory processing which predicts perceptual cues related to room acoustic perception.