Spherical Near-Field (NF) HRIR Compilation of the Neumann KU100

[1] J. M. Arend, A. Neidhardt, and C. Pörschmann, “Measurement and Perceptual Evaluation of a Spherical Near-Field HRTF Set,” in Proceedings of the 29th Tonmeistertagung - VDT International Convention, 2016, pp. 356–363.
Download link: Conference Paper TMT 2016, Cologne (Germany)

[2] C. Pörschmann, J. M. Arend, and A. Neidhardt, “A Spherical Near-Field HRTF Set for Auralization and Psychoacoustic Research,” in Proceedings of the 142nd AES Convention, Berlin, Germany, 2017, pp. 1–5.
AES link: Conference Paper AES 2017, Berlin (Germany)

Files also available at sofaconventions.org in SOFA file format. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

The perceptual refinement of dynamic binaural synthesis has been subject to research for the past years. The basic principle relies on head-related transfer functions (HRTFs), which describe the directional filtering caused by the head, pinna, and torso. However, most systems are based on far-field HRTFs and therefore ignore the acoustical specifics of near-field sound sources. One reason might be that full spherical near-field HRTF sets are rarely available. In this paper, we present an HRTF set of a Neumann KU100 dummy head. The set is freely available for download and contains post-processed impulse responses, captured on a circular and full spherical grid at sound source distances between 0.25m and 1.50 m. In a subsequent listening experiment using dynamic binaural synthesis, we investigated if the captured binaural cues affect estimated distance of a virtual sound source. The set is useful for various spatial audio applications where nearby virtual sound sources are required, such as auditory displays. 

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Contact:
Christoph Pörschmann
TH Köln - University of Applied Sciences
Institute of Communications Engineering
Department of Acoustics and Audio Signal Processing
Betzdorfer Str. 2, D-50679 Cologne, Germany
https://www.th-koeln.de/akustik

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