Estimation of Spectral Notches from Pinna Meshes: Insights from a Simple Computational Model

Simone Spagnol; Riccardo Miccini; Marius George Onofrei; Runar Unnthorsson; Stefania Serafin

doi:10.1109/TASLP.2021.3101928

Estimation of Spectral Notches from Pinna Meshes: Insights from a Simple Computational Model

Simone Spagnol^*, Riccardo Miccini, Marius George Onofrei, Runar Unnthorsson, Stefania Serafin

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

57 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

While previous research on spatial sound perception investigated the physical mechanisms producing the most relevant elevation cues, how spectral notches are generated and related to the individual morphology of the human pinna is still a topic of debate. Correctly modeling these important elevation cues, and in particular the lowest frequency notches, is an essential step for individualizing Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs). In this paper we propose a simple computational model able to predict the center frequencies of pinna notches from ear meshes. We apply such a model to a highly controlled HRTF dataset built with the specific purpose of understanding the contribution of the pinna to the HRTF. Results show that the computational model is able to approximate the lowest frequency notch with improved accuracy with respect to other state-of-the-art methods. By contrast, the model fails to predict higher-order pinna notches correctly. The proposed approximation supplements understanding of the morphology involved in generating spectral notches in experimental HRTFs.

Original language	English
Article number	9507273
Journal	IEEE/ACM Transactions on Audio Speech and Language Processing
Volume	29
Pages (from-to)	2683-2695
Number of pages	13
ISSN	2329-9290
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/TASLP.2021.3101928
Publication status	Published - 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Manuscript received November 6, 2020; revised April 20, 2021 and June 1, 2021; accepted July 26, 2021. Date of publication August 4, 2021; date of current version August 19, 2021. This work was supported in part by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie under Grant 797850 and in part by the NordForsk’s Nordic University Hubs programme under Grant 86892. The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript, and approving it for publication was Prof. H. Hacihabiboglu. (Corresponding author: Simone Spagnol.) Simone Spagnol was with the Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology, Aalborg University, 2450 Copenhagen, Denmark. He is with the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, 2628CE Delft, The Netherlands (e-mail: s.spagnol@tudelft.nl).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 IEEE.

Keywords

audio signal processing
head-related transfer functions (HRTFs)
HRTF individualization
pinna
Spatial audio
spatial hearing

Access to Document

10.1109/TASLP.2021.3101928Licence: CC BY 4.0

Estimation_of_Spectral_Notches_From_Pinna_Meshes_Insights_From_a_Simple_Computational_ModelFinal published version, 4.32 MBLicence: CC BY 4.0

AUB Link

Search for the material in Aalborg University Library's search engine

Cite this

@article{075f198673d6465c85013fc268a838db,

title = "Estimation of Spectral Notches from Pinna Meshes: Insights from a Simple Computational Model",

abstract = "While previous research on spatial sound perception investigated the physical mechanisms producing the most relevant elevation cues, how spectral notches are generated and related to the individual morphology of the human pinna is still a topic of debate. Correctly modeling these important elevation cues, and in particular the lowest frequency notches, is an essential step for individualizing Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs). In this paper we propose a simple computational model able to predict the center frequencies of pinna notches from ear meshes. We apply such a model to a highly controlled HRTF dataset built with the specific purpose of understanding the contribution of the pinna to the HRTF. Results show that the computational model is able to approximate the lowest frequency notch with improved accuracy with respect to other state-of-the-art methods. By contrast, the model fails to predict higher-order pinna notches correctly. The proposed approximation supplements understanding of the morphology involved in generating spectral notches in experimental HRTFs.",

keywords = "audio signal processing, head-related transfer functions (HRTFs), HRTF individualization, pinna, Spatial audio, spatial hearing",

author = "Simone Spagnol and Riccardo Miccini and Onofrei, {Marius George} and Runar Unnthorsson and Stefania Serafin",

note = "Funding Information: Manuscript received November 6, 2020; revised April 20, 2021 and June 1, 2021; accepted July 26, 2021. Date of publication August 4, 2021; date of current version August 19, 2021. This work was supported in part by the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under the Marie Sk{\l}odowska-Curie under Grant 797850 and in part by the NordForsk{\textquoteright}s Nordic University Hubs programme under Grant 86892. The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript, and approving it for publication was Prof. H. Hacihabiboglu. (Corresponding author: Simone Spagnol.) Simone Spagnol was with the Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology, Aalborg University, 2450 Copenhagen, Denmark. He is with the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, 2628CE Delft, The Netherlands (e-mail: s.spagnol@tudelft.nl). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2014 IEEE.",

year = "2021",

doi = "10.1109/TASLP.2021.3101928",

language = "English",

volume = "29",

pages = "2683--2695",

journal = "IEEE/ACM Transactions on Audio Speech and Language Processing",

issn = "2329-9290",

publisher = "IEEE Signal Processing Society",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Estimation of Spectral Notches from Pinna Meshes

T2 - Insights from a Simple Computational Model

AU - Spagnol, Simone

AU - Miccini, Riccardo

AU - Onofrei, Marius George

AU - Unnthorsson, Runar

AU - Serafin, Stefania

N1 - Funding Information: Manuscript received November 6, 2020; revised April 20, 2021 and June 1, 2021; accepted July 26, 2021. Date of publication August 4, 2021; date of current version August 19, 2021. This work was supported in part by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie under Grant 797850 and in part by the NordForsk’s Nordic University Hubs programme under Grant 86892. The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript, and approving it for publication was Prof. H. Hacihabiboglu. (Corresponding author: Simone Spagnol.) Simone Spagnol was with the Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology, Aalborg University, 2450 Copenhagen, Denmark. He is with the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, 2628CE Delft, The Netherlands (e-mail: s.spagnol@tudelft.nl). Publisher Copyright: © 2014 IEEE.

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - While previous research on spatial sound perception investigated the physical mechanisms producing the most relevant elevation cues, how spectral notches are generated and related to the individual morphology of the human pinna is still a topic of debate. Correctly modeling these important elevation cues, and in particular the lowest frequency notches, is an essential step for individualizing Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs). In this paper we propose a simple computational model able to predict the center frequencies of pinna notches from ear meshes. We apply such a model to a highly controlled HRTF dataset built with the specific purpose of understanding the contribution of the pinna to the HRTF. Results show that the computational model is able to approximate the lowest frequency notch with improved accuracy with respect to other state-of-the-art methods. By contrast, the model fails to predict higher-order pinna notches correctly. The proposed approximation supplements understanding of the morphology involved in generating spectral notches in experimental HRTFs.

AB - While previous research on spatial sound perception investigated the physical mechanisms producing the most relevant elevation cues, how spectral notches are generated and related to the individual morphology of the human pinna is still a topic of debate. Correctly modeling these important elevation cues, and in particular the lowest frequency notches, is an essential step for individualizing Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs). In this paper we propose a simple computational model able to predict the center frequencies of pinna notches from ear meshes. We apply such a model to a highly controlled HRTF dataset built with the specific purpose of understanding the contribution of the pinna to the HRTF. Results show that the computational model is able to approximate the lowest frequency notch with improved accuracy with respect to other state-of-the-art methods. By contrast, the model fails to predict higher-order pinna notches correctly. The proposed approximation supplements understanding of the morphology involved in generating spectral notches in experimental HRTFs.

KW - audio signal processing

KW - head-related transfer functions (HRTFs)

KW - HRTF individualization

KW - pinna

KW - Spatial audio

KW - spatial hearing

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112597969&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1109/TASLP.2021.3101928

DO - 10.1109/TASLP.2021.3101928

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85112597969

SN - 2329-9290

VL - 29

SP - 2683

EP - 2695

JO - IEEE/ACM Transactions on Audio Speech and Language Processing

JF - IEEE/ACM Transactions on Audio Speech and Language Processing

M1 - 9507273

ER -

Estimation of Spectral Notches from Pinna Meshes: Insights from a Simple Computational Model

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

AUB Link

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this