A Sound Externalization Method for Realistic Audio Rendering in a Headphone Listening Environment
Yong-Guk Kim, Chanjun Chun, Hong-Kook Kim, Yong-Ju Lee, Daeyoung Jang, Kyeongok Kang · Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea · 2010
In this paper, a sound externalization method is proposed for out-of-the-head localization in a headphone listening environment. In order to reduce timbre distortion by the conventional methods using a measured a head-related transfer function (HRTF) or early reflections, the proposed method integrates a model-based HRTF with reverberation. In addition, for improving frontal externalization performance, techniques such as decorrelation and spectral notch filtering are included. To evaluate the performance of the proposed externalization method, subjective listening tests are conducted by using different types of sound sources such as white noise, sound effects, speech, and music. It is shown from the test results that the proposed externalization method can localize sound sources farther away from out of the head than the conventional method.