A mobile augmented reality audio system with binaural microphones
R.W. Albrecht, Tapio Lokki, Lauri Savioja · 2011
This paper presents a microphone-hear-through augmented reality hardware system, consisting of insert headphones with binaural microphones, i.e., a microphone at each ear, together with a separate mixer and equalizer unit. The equalizer compensates for changes in ear canal resonances caused by the headphones blocking the ear canals, and is used to achieve a natural-sounding reproduction of the acoustic environment when playing the microphone signals through the headphones. The system can be used both for pure augmented reality applications and for any applications presenting audio through headphones while allowing the user to listen to the environment at the same time. Examples of both types of applications are given. The applications can utilize the binaural microphone signals and the user can adjust the level of the environmental sounds heard through the headphones.