Feasibility of iMagLS-BSM -- ILD Informed Binaural Signal Matching with Arbitrary Microphone Arrays

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel optimization method, iMagLS-BSM, that improves binaural signal reproduction quality from limited and irregular microphone arrays by reducing ILD errors while maintaining magnitude accuracy.

Contribution

It introduces a new ILD-informed loss function for beamforming-based binaural reproduction, enhancing spatial audio quality from wearable microphone setups.

Findings

Significant reduction in ILD error.

Maintains binaural magnitude error comparable to existing methods.

Shows promise for improved spatial audio in AR/VR applications.

Abstract

Binaural reproduction for headphone-centric listening has become a focal point in ongoing research, particularly within the realm of advancing technologies such as augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR). The demand for high-quality spatial audio in these applications is essential to uphold a seamless sense of immersion. However, challenges arise from wearable recording devices equipped with only a limited number of microphones and irregular microphone placements due to design constraints. These factors contribute to limited reproduction quality compared to reference signals captured by high-order microphone arrays. This paper introduces a novel optimization loss tailored for a beamforming-based, signal-independent binaural reproduction scheme. This method, named iMagLS-BSM incorporates an interaural level difference (ILD) error term into the previously proposed binaural signal matching (BSM) magnitude least squares (MagLS) rendering loss for lateral plane angles. The method leverages nonlinear programming to minimize the introduced loss. Preliminary results show a substantial reduction in ILD error, while maintaining a binaural magnitude error comparable to that achieved with a MagLS BSM solution. These findings hold promise for enhancing the overall spatial quality of resultant binaural signals.