A Subband Energy Modification Method for Elevation Control in Median Plane

Elevation perception is crucial for binaural reproduction. A recent study proposed an elevation control method by modifying the energy of HRTFs in each auditory scale subband, such as the ERB and Mel subband. However, this subband division is designed based on auditory excitation patterns and may not be consistent with the elevation localization cues. To this end, this study proposes a novel subband division strategy which emphasizes the physiological information involved in elevation localization based on a statistical analysis of the HRTF. Then, the elevation controlled HRTFs are constructed by modifying the energy of the HRTF magnitudes in each subband. Results of the listening test demonstrate that our method with the proposed subband division strategy outperforms the method with ERB scale subdivision in terms of the accuracy for controlling the perceived elevation of sound image.