Roles of spectral peaks and notches in the head-related transfer functions in the upper median plane for vertical localization

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2016-10, Vol.140 (4), p.2957-2957
• Main Authors: Iida, Kazuhiro, Ishii, Yohji
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.4969132

The parametric head-related transfer function (HRTF) recomposed of only a spectral peak (P1) generated by the first resonance of the pinna and two spectral notches (N1 and N2) generated by the first and the second anti-resonances of the pinna has been reported to provide approximately the same localization performance as the measured HRTF for the front and rear directions. However, for the upper directions, the localization performance for some of the subjects decreased. In the present study, we carried out two localization tests with seven target vertical angles in the upper median plane to clarify whether adding a spectral peak (P2) generated by the second resonance of the pinna can resolve this performance decrease. The results suggested the following: (1) N1, N2, and P1 play an important role in vertical localization; (2) localization performance was improved by adding P2 to N1N2P1 at the upper directions; (3) however, a sound image was hardly perceived in the upward direction by reproducing only P2, P1, and P1 + P2; and (4) P2 could be utilized to enhance N1 at the upper direction.