The effect of self-motion and room familiarity on sound source localization in virtual environments

TL;DR

This study explores how self-motion and room familiarity affect sound source localization accuracy in virtual environments, revealing that lateral movement improves distance perception while room familiarity influences azimuth perception.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the roles of self-motion and acoustic familiarity in sound localization within virtual reality settings.

Findings

Lateral self-motion improves distance perception accuracy.

Room acoustic adaptation enhances distance perception.

Azimuth perception is unaffected or negatively affected by lateral movement and room familiarity.

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence of lateral horizontal self-motion of participants during signal presentation on distance and azimuth perception for frontal sound sources in a rectangular room. Additionally, the effect of deviating room acoustics for a single sound presentation embedded in a sequence of presentations using a baseline room acoustics for familiarization is analyzed. For this purpose, two experiments were conducted using audiovisual virtual reality technology with dynamic head-tracking and real-time auralization over headphones combined with visual rendering of the room using a head-mounted display. Results show an improved distance perception accuracy when participants moved laterally during signal presentation instead of staying at a fixed position, with only head movements allowed. Adaptation to the room acoustics also improves distance perception accuracy. Azimuth perception seems to be independent of lateral movements during signal presentation and could even be negatively influenced by the familiarity of the used room acoustics.