HRTFs Measurement Based on Periodic Sequences Robust towards Nonlinearities in Automotive Audio

Sensors (Basel). 2023 Feb 3;23(3):1692. doi: 10.3390/s23031692.

Abstract

The head related transfer functions (HRTFs) represent the acoustic path transfer functions between sound sources in 3D space and the listener's ear. They are used to create immersive audio scenarios or to subjectively evaluate sound systems according to a human-centric point of view. Cars are nowadays the most popular audio listening environment and the use of HRTFs in automotive audio has recently attracted the attention of researchers. In this context, the paper proposes a measurement method for HRTFs based on perfect or orthogonal periodic sequences. The proposed measurement method ensures robustness towards the nonlinearities that may affect the measurement system. The experimental results considering both an emulated scenario and real measurements in a controlled environment illustrate the effectiveness of the approach and compare the proposed method with other popular approaches.

Keywords: HRTFs measurement; automotive audio; head related transfer functions; orthogonal periodic sequences; perfect periodic sequences.