Evaluation of Spatial Sound Description in Virtual Environments

Recent advances in Spatial Sound have made important contributions to Virtual Environment research. The evolution of spatial sound description from VRML to MPEG-4 is examined and some of the shortcomings of these languages are highlighted. An auditory framework for examining the process of sound spatialization is introduced and existing spatial description languages are measured against this. Different models of spatial sound representation are reviewed and questions are raised about certain spatial sound attributes. The merits of using a subjective lexicon to describe spatial characteristics are also examined.