Auditory spatial perception using bone conduction headphones along with fitted head related transfer functions

Abstract

An approach is presented how to practically determine which head-related transfer function (HRTF) profiles fit best for individuals wearing a bone conduction headphone. Such headphones may be particularly useful for visually impaired people (e.g., for navigation applications) as they do not obstruct the outer ear. Hence, it is still possible to perceive environmental sounds without restraints while wearing such headphones. For a fast and user-friendly identification of fitting HRTF profiles, an adapted tournament system is proposed. It could be shown that the results of the tournament method, where participants had to rate overall preference, externalization and envelopment, correlated well with the results of the localization task. The correlation was higher for the conventional headphones condition than for the bone conduction headphones condition. Analyses of the transmission characteristics show an uneven frequency response of bone conduction headphones compared to conventional headphones or speakers. In future research it will be investigated whether these findings are relevant for the auditory spatial perception at all and to what extent best fitting HRTFs may compensate for these phenomena. © 2019 IEEE.