Where you are in a room

Abstract

A common aim in virtual reality room acoustics simulation is accurate listener position dependent rendering. However, it is unclear whether a mismatch between the acoustics and visual representation of a room influences the experience, or is even noticeable. Here, we ask if listeners without any special experience in echolocation are able to identify their position in a room based on the acoustics alone. In a first test, direct comparison between acoustic renderings from the different positions in the room revealed clearly audible differences, which subjects described with various acoustic attributes. The design of the subsequent experiment allows participants to move around and explore the sound within different zones in a real room, while switching between visual renderings of the zones in a head-mounted display. The results show that identification was only possible in some special cases. In about 74 percent of all trials, listeners were not able to hear where they were in the room. The results imply that audible, position dependent room acoustic rendering in virtual reality may not be noticeable under certain conditions, which highlights the importance of evaluation paradigm choice when assessing virtual acoustics.

Video - The Locoscope Test

Below, you can find a short video that shows how a trial looked in the virtual blindfold experiment.
The left left side shows the participant's view in VR and the right side shows the real room.

A rough version of the scan used for virtualizing the room can be explored on the ground floor of the interactive virtual acoustics lab.

Audio Samples used in the Direct Comparison Test

Speech

Scroll sideways to find more samples.

Zone 1
Zone 2
Zone 3
Zone 4
Zone 5

Drums