The current popular and scientific interest in virtual environments has provided a new impetus for investigating binaural and spatial hearing. However, the many intriguing phenomena of spatial hearing have long made it an exciting area of scientific inquiry. Psychophysical and physiological investigations of spatial hearing seem to be converging on common explanations of underlying mechanisms. These understandings have in turn been incorporated into sophisticated yet mathematically tractable models of binaural interaction. Thus, binaural and spatial hearing is one of the few areas in which professionals are soon likely to find adequate physiological explanations of complex psychological phenomena that can be reasonably and usefully approximated by mathematical and physical models. This volume grew out of the Conference on Binaural and Spatial Hearing, a four-day event held at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in response to rapid developments in binaural and spatial hearing research and technology. Meant to be more than just a proceedings, it presents chapters that are longer than typical proceedings papers and contain considerably more review material, including extensive bibliographies in many cases. Arranged into topical sections, the chapters represent major thrusts in the recent literature. The authors of the first chapter in each section have been encouraged to take a broad perspective and review the current state of literature. Subsequent chapters in each section tend to be somewhat more narrowly focused, and often emphasize the authors' own work. Thus, each section provides overview, background, and current research on a particular topic. This book is significant in that it reviews the important work during the past 10 to 15 years, and provides greater breadth and depth than most of the previous works.

The use of non-intrusive virtual environments is gaining more and more importance but was focused mainly on addressing the visual sense. However, the human perception consists not only of visual input and thus it would be worthwhile to create multi-modal and interactive virtual environments. This thesis describes the techniques required to include the acoustic component into a virtual environment and furthermore the implementation of a software system, which takes advantage of these techniques to create complex acoustical scenes in real time. The system is based on the binaural technology. It features spatially distributed sound sources which are utilized to create an environment that is as authentic as possible. This comprises a description of the source, including its relevant angle-, distance- and time- dependent radiation, the sound distribution in the virtual scene (room acoustics), the perception-related consideration of all sound field components, as well as the exact reproduction of the artificial sound at the ears of the user. The focus of this thesis is put on the reproduction technology. In this context, an approach for dynamic crosstalk cancellation is presented, which enables a loudspeaker-based reproduction. The required filters are processed in real time on the basis of the position data and measured transfer functions of the outer ear. Furthermore the integration of this spatial audio system into a five-sided Virtual Reality display system is described and evaluated.

The field of spatial hearing has exploded in the decade or so since Jens Blauert's classic work on acoustics was first published in English. This revised edition adds a new chapter that describes developments in such areas as auditory virtual reality (an important field of application that is based mainly on the physics of spatial hearing), binaural technology (modeling speech enhancement by binaural hearing), and spatial sound-field mapping. The chapter also includes recent research on the precedence effect that provides clear experimental evidence that cognition plays a significant role in spatial hearing.The remaining four chapters in this comprehensive reference cover auditory research procedures and psychometric methods, spatial hearing with one sound source, spatial hearing with multiple sound sources and in enclosed spaces, and progress and trends from 1972 (the first German edition) to 1983 (the first English edition) -- work that includes research on the physics of the external ear, and the application of signal processing theory to modeling the spatial hearing process. There is an extensive bibliography of more than 900 items.

- Speech Generation: Acoustics, Models and Applications (Arild Lacroix). - The Evolution of Digital Audio Technology (John Mourjopoulos). - Audio-Visual Interaction (Armin Kohlrausch) . - Speech and Audio Coding (Ulrich Heute) . - Binaural Technique (Dorte Hammerhoei, Henrik Moeller). - Auditory Virtual Environment (Pedro Novo). - Evolutionary Adaptions for Auditory Communication (Georg Klump). - A Functional View on the Human Hearing Organ (Herbert Hudde). - Modeling of Binaural Hearing (Jonas Braasch). - Psychoacoustics and Sound Quality (Hugo Fastl). - Semiotics for Engineers (Ute Jekosch). - Quality of Transmitted Speech for Humans and Machines (Sebastian Möller).

The field of Binaural Hearing involves studies of auditory perception, physiology, and modeling, including normal and abnormal aspects of the system. Binaural processes involved in both sound localization and speech unmasking have gained a broader interest and have received growing attention in the published literature. The field has undergone some significant changes. There is now a much richer understanding of the many aspects that comprising binaural processing, its role in development, and in success and limitations of hearing-aid and cochlear-implant users. The goal of this volume is to provide an up-to-date reference on the developments and novel ideas in the field of binaural hearing. The primary readership for the volume is expected to be academic specialists in the diverse fields that connect with psychoacoustics, neuroscience, engineering, psychology, audiology, and cochlear implants. This volume will serve as an important resource by way of introduction to the field, in particular for graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, the faculty who train them and clinicians.

Section 3. Capturing and controlling the spatial sound field. A study on 3D sound image control by two loudspeakers located in the transverse plane / K. Iida, T. Ishii, and Y. Ishii. Selective listening point audio based on blind signal separation and 3D audio effect / T. Nishino [und weitere]. Selective listening point audio based on blind signal separation and 3D audio effect / T. Nishino. Sweet spot size in virtual sound reproduction : A temporal analysis / Y. Lacouture Parodi and P. Rubak. Psychoacoustic evaluation of different methods for creating individualized, headphone-presented virtual auditory space from B-format room impulse responses / A. Kan, C. Jin, and A. van Schaik. Effects of microphone arrangements on the accuracy of a spherical microphone array (SENZI) in acquiring high-definition 3D sound space information / J. Kodama [und weitere]. Perception-based reproduction of spatial sound with directional audio coding / V. Pulkki [und weitere]. Capturing and recreating auditory virtual reality / R. Duraiswami [und weitere]. Reconstructing sound source directivity in virtual acoustic environments / M. Noisternig, F. Zotter, and B.F.G. Katz. Implementation of real-time room auralization using a surrounding loudspeaker array / T. Okamoto [und weitere]. Spatialisation in audio augmented reality using finger snaps / H. Gamper and T. Lokki. Generation of sound ball : Its theory and implementation / Y.-H. Kim [und weitere]. Estimation of high-resolution sound properties for realizing an editable sound-space system / T. Okamoto, Y. Iwaya, and Y. Suzuki -- Section 4. Applying virtual sound techniques in the real world. Binaural hearing assistance system based on frequency domain binaural model / T. Usagawa and Y. Chisaki. A spatial auditory display for telematic music performances / J. Braasch [und weitere]. Auditory orientation training system developed for blind people using PC-based wide-range 3-D sound technology / Y. Seki [und weitere]. Mapping musical scales onto virtual 3D spaces / J. Villegas and M. Cohen. Sonifying head-related transfer unctions / D. Cabrera and W.L. Martens. Effects of spatial cues on detectability of alarm signals in noisy environments / N. Kuroda [und weitere]. Binaural technique for active noise control assessment / Y. Watanabe and H. Hamada