TY - CONF T1 - Virtual audio system customization using visual matching of ear parameters T2 - 16th International Conference on Pattern Recognition, 2002. Proceedings Y1 - 2002 A1 - Zotkin,Dmitry N A1 - Duraiswami, Ramani A1 - Davis, Larry S. A1 - Mohan,A. A1 - Raykar,V. KW - acoustic signal processing KW - Audio systems KW - Auditory system KW - Computer vision KW - database KW - Ear KW - ear parameter matching KW - geometrical measurements KW - Head KW - head related transfer functions KW - HRTF customization KW - Image databases KW - IMAGE PROCESSING KW - medical image processing KW - performance improvement KW - Position measurement KW - sonification KW - Spatial databases KW - System testing KW - Transfer functions KW - virtual audio system customization KW - virtual auditory spaces KW - virtual auditory system KW - visual matching AB - Applications in the creation of virtual auditory spaces (VAS) and sonification require individualized head related transfer functions (HRTFs) for perceptual fidelity. HRTFs exhibit significant variation from person to person due to differences between their pinnae, and their body sizes. We propose and preliminarily implement a simple HRTF customization based on the use of a published database of HRTFs (Algazi et al., 2001) that also contains geometrical measurements of subject pinnae. We measure some of these features via simple image processing, and select the HRTF that has features most closely corresponding to the individual's features. This selection procedure is implemented along with the virtual auditory system described in (Zotkin et al., 2002), and listener tests conducted comparing the customized HRTF and a fixed HRTF. Despite the simplicity of the method, tests reveal average improvement in localization accuracy of about 25 percent, though performance improvement varies with source location and individuals. JA - 16th International Conference on Pattern Recognition, 2002. Proceedings PB - IEEE VL - 3 SN - 0-7695-1695-X M3 - 10.1109/ICPR.2002.1048207 ER -