Manipulation of source width based on sound field reproduction

In this study, a method is proposed to generate an extended virtual source enabling the extension of the perceived source width. In various auditory scenes, a sound source delivers the sensations of its size and location. The perceived source width is a spatial auditory impression related to the source size. Among the source width attributes, individual source width (ISW) is defined as the perceived width of an individual sound source disregarding a room effect. Accordingly, in representing a virtual source containing the size attribute, it is required to manipulate ISW as well as localization. The perceived source width is inversely proportional to the similarity of the listener’s ear signals. The dissimilar pressures at both ears can be generated by randomizing the spectral phase distributions. In this paper, it attempts to produce the randomized phase distributions in a large area based on the sound field reproduction. To achieve this goal, a target sound field is designed such that the radiation pattern is randomly changed with respect to frequency. A direct solution for reproducing the designed field is then derived in terms of integral approach. Simulation results show that the proposed method can manipulate the perceived source width over a large area.