Effect of accelerometer-based head-tracking artifacts on externalization

Head movements combined with head-tracking enable dynamic binaural synthesis of virtual sounds. In particular, head-tracked head movements were shown to improve both auditory externalization and azimuth localization.

However, head-tracking artefacts can be encountered with certain devices, in particular when technical constraints do not enable to implement the most robust Attitude and Heading Reference System (AHRS) algorithms. Such artefacts can consist e.g. of a latency of tracking or an erroneous estimation of the amplitude of the movement.

In our article published in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, we (Vincent Grimaldi Laurent Simon Gilles Courtois and Herve Lissek ) investigate the perceptual effects of such head-tracking artefacts. More specifically, the article describes two listening experiments aiming to study the effect of such artefacts on auditory externalization and azimuth localization, respectively.

Link to the open access paper: https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=22238