Study and implementation of HRTF in audio signal processing

Abstract

Listening to music via earphones is a commonplace these days. However, people tend to strive for new things, such as hearing 3D sound. Head-related transfer function (HRTF) is a recipe for creating 3D sound via earphones. This project aims at studying and implementing HRTF to create 3D sound in binaural system. The head-related impulse responses (HRIR) measured from MIT Media Lab in USA were adopted. With the use of HRIR, apparent sound sources at various locations were realized and investigated. To be user-friendly, graphical user interface (GUI) was employed to make an interface named as "localization". This allows users to opt for a short piece of music, locate it at the selected position and the corresponding impulse responses can be plotted. What is more, users can create his own 3D music in an interface of "DIY_3Dsound". Apart from interfaces, three pieces of 3D soundtrack were innovated to imitate different scenes. For reference, a CD is attached to this document in which it contains the MATLAB scripts, videos for demonstration of the use of interfaces and the innovated 3D soundtracks.