Performance of binaural technology for auditory selective attention

Abstract

A room-acoustic situation with many sources is one of the best examples for auditory selective attention – relevant information should be selectively observed and irrelevant information should be ignored. In a joint research project between Acoustics and Psychology at RWTH Aachen University the intentional switching of auditory selective attention is examined using dichotic and binaural presentation of the stimuli. The goal is to provide artificially generated acoustic scenes (e.g. typical classroom situation, open plan offices etc.), as in psychoacoustic experiments on auditory selective attention no differences between a real situation and an artificially generated situation occur. Therefore at first we investigate various binaural reproduction and equalization methods using experiments in auditory selective attention. Headphones must always be adequately equalized if they are to deliver high perceptual plausibility. However, the transfer function between headphones and ear drums varies between different persons. Because of this, individual equalizations with different microphone positions in the ear canal are measured. In listening tests the overall quality of the equalization methods is to be rated regarding localization and realism, envelopment as well as immersion. First results concerning the psychoacoustic experiments, the scene generation as well as headphone equalization will be presented.