SofaMyRoom: a fast and multiplatform "shoebox" room simulator for binaural room impulse response dataset generation

TL;DR

SofaMyRoom is a fast, multiplatform shoebox room simulator that generates synthetic binaural room impulse responses using various HRTFs, aiding machine hearing research with more realistic acoustic datasets.

Contribution

It introduces a versatile, efficient room simulation tool that integrates multiple HRTF datasets in SOFA format, addressing limitations of existing dummy-head based solutions.

Findings

Supports multiple HRTF sets in SOFA format

Enables systematic BRIR dataset generation

Accessible to both experts and non-experts

Abstract

This paper introduces a shoebox room simulator able to systematically generate synthetic datasets of binaural room impulse responses (BRIRs) given an arbitrary set of head-related transfer functions (HRTFs). The evaluation of machine hearing algorithms frequently requires BRIR datasets in order to simulate the acoustics of any environment. However, currently available solutions typically consider only HRTFs measured on dummy heads, which poorly characterize the high variability in spatial sound perception. Our solution allows to integrate a room impulse response (RIR) simulator with different HRTF sets represented in Spatially Oriented Format for Acoustics (SOFA). The source code and the compiled binaries for different operating systems allow to both advanced and non-expert users to benefit from our toolbox, see https://github.com/spatialaudiotools/sofamyroom/ .