3D sound imaging with head tracking

In Virtual Reality (VR) applications, an important measure of quality is the extent to which the user believes he is a part of (or immersed in) the virtual world which is being simulated. In this paper our focus is sound that is emanating from a source positioned in a particular 3D location in the real world. The ability to determine the 3D position of a sound source is called sound localization. A key element in localization is the Head Related Transfer Function (HTRF) and the associated impulse response. Here we use the U.C. Davis HTRF database along with a real-time DSP engine to implement the localization filters. By detecting the pose of the listener's head, the apparent position of a sound source relative to the listener is adjusted to accommodate the movement of the listener's head, thereby making the sound source appear to be at a fixed position in 3D space.