Identifying Where You Are in a Room: Sensitivity to Room Acoustics

In a spatial auditory display, reverberation provides a reliable cue for source distance, increases the subjective realism of the display, and improves the externalization of simulated sound sources. However, relatively little is known about perceptual sensitivity to differences in reverberation patterns or how precisely reverberation must be simulated in a spatial auditory display. This paper presents preliminary results of a study examining sensitivity to changes in listener location in a simulated room. Results suggest that monaural cues in the ear receiving the least direct-sound energy provide the most salient cues for identifying room location. However, many details in the reverberation pattern are not easily perceived. These results indicate that including reverberation from simplified room models may provide the benefits of reverberation without noticeably degrading the realism of the display.