Investigations into the human pinna shapes on head-related transfer functions in the median plane

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2013-05, Vol.133 (5_Supplement), p.3301-3301
• Main Authors: Komatsu, Hajime, Nakano, Kota, Nakayama, Masato, Nishiura, Takanobu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.4805463

The binaural reproduction system requires many accurate measurements of head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) to achieve the high-precision sound localization. However, the actual measurement of HRTFs has a heavy burden for subjects. To solve this problem, personalize HRTFs have been proposed. In the personalize HRTFs, the interaural level difference (ILD) and the interaural time difference (ITD) are utilized on the sound localization in the horizontal plane, and the spectral envelope of HRTFs is utilized on the sound localization in the median plane. In the present paper, we focus on the human pinna shapes as listener’s anthropometric parameters on the sound localization in the median plane. In order to reveal the effect of human pinna shapes on HRTFs in the median plane, we investigate the relationship between human pinna shapes and the spectrum envelope of HRTFs. More specifically, we crafted the dummy pinna for the dummy head. Also, we investigated the spectrum envelope of HRTFs in various shape conditions of the dummy pinna in the median plane. As a result of investigations, we confirmed correspondence relationship between human pinna shapes and the spectrum envelope of HRTFs.