Frank's Masters Thesis

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN AURALIZATION SYSTEM WITH A SPECTRUM-BASED TEMPORAL PROCESSING OPTIMIZATION

by Frank Filipanits Jr.

Master's Research Project
University of Miami
May 1994

Abstract

An auralization software system for performing static (non-moving) sound source placement with headphone playback is developed using present theory and algorithms. Several caveats for auralization system design are identified and addressed. One method of temporal computation optimization is then presented. It is shown that bandwidth analysis of the raw sound source greatly reduces the computation time necessary for auralization synthesis, by identifying frequency ranges which contain zero information and can be ignored during processing. A residue method is used to evaluate the resulting algorithm.

Dedication

To Merrily -

"The Light illumine you."

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the myriad persons who provided support and encouragement throughout the pursuit of this project. In particular:

Tom Zudock for piquing my interest in three-dimensional audio and guiding my efforts to code it into reality; Ken Pohlmann and John Monforte at UM for providing inspiration and enforcing the deadlines, as well as excellent instruction and a general helping hand; Jim Boyk at Caltech for opening my ears and convincing me that I could actually make a career out of audio; Jonathan Abel at Crystal River Engineering for discussing auralization and optimization as implemented in present products; John Antony for providing "software support"; Sean Richards for knowing when to drag me away from my computer and when to let me be, and for keeping me excited about learning; Tim Onders for being a technical "sounding board" and good friend.

Thanks also to my parents, who provided the item of greatest worth - opportunity. Thank you for standing by me through the many trials and decisions of my educational career.

This version of the thesis has been modified slightly during the translation to HTML. The substance, however, remains unchanged.

A raw PostScript version sthesis.ps (635k) and a gzip'ed PostScript version sthesis.gz (113k) are both available for downloading.

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN AURALIZATION SYSTEM WITH A SPECTRUM-BASED TEMPORAL PROCESSING OPTIMIZATION

Abstract

Dedication

Acknowledgments

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

1 INTRODUCTION TO AURALIZATION

2 OVERVIEW

3 SPATIAL PLACEMENT USING ILDS AND ITDS

4 INTRODUCING THE HRTF

5 FIRST CUT OPTIMIZATION: BAND-LIMITED SOURCES

6 RESULTS

7 VALIDATION

8 DIRECTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY

BIBLIOGRAPHY