Virtual Reality Exploration with Different Head-Related Transfer Functions

One of the main challenges of spatial audio rendering in headphones is the crucial work behind the personalization of the so-called head-related transfer functions (HRTFs). HRTFs capture the listener's acoustic effects allowing a personal perception of immersion in virtual reality context. This paper aims to investigate the possible benefits of personalized HRTFs that were individually selected based on anthropometric data (pinnae shapes). Personalized audio rendering was compared to a generic HRTF and a stereo sound condition. Two studies were performed; the first study consisted of a screening test aiming to evaluate the participants' localization performance with HRTFs for a non-visible spatialized audio source. The second experiment allowed the participants to freely explore a VR scene with five audiovisual sources for two minutes each, with both HRTF and stereo conditions. A questionnaire with items for spatial audio quality, presence and attention was used for the evaluation. Results indicate that audio rendering methods made no difference on responses to the questionnaire in the two minutes of a free exploration.