A toolbox for rendering virtual acoustic environments in the context of audiology

TL;DR

This paper introduces TASCAR, a software toolbox for creating interactive virtual acoustic environments suitable for audiology and hearing aid research, capable of simulating multiple moving sound sources in real-time.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel software framework and simulation methods for dynamic virtual acoustic environments, enabling real-time interaction and complex sound source modeling.

Findings

Simulation of several hundred sound sources in real-time

Efficient time-domain simulation methods demonstrated

System performance measured on standard hardware

Abstract

A toolbox for creation and rendering of dynamic virtual acoustic environments (TASCAR) that allows direct user interaction was developed for application in hearing aid research and audiology. This technical paper describes the general software structure and the time-domain simulation methods, i.e., transmission model, image source model, and render formats, used to produce virtual acoustic environments with moving objects. Implementation-specific properties are described, and the computational performance of the system was measured as a function of simulation complexity. Results show that on commercially available commonly used hardware the simulation of several hundred virtual sound sources is possible in the time domain.