Immersive and Interactive Audio (2019)

2019 AES International Conference on Immersive and Interactive Audio (March 2019)

 

Traditional sound localization studies are often performed in anechoic chambers and in complete darkness. In our daily life, however, we are exposed to rich auditory scenes with multiple sound sources and complementary visual information. Although it is understood that the presence of maskers hinders auditory spatial awareness, it is not known whether competing sound sources can provide spatial information that helps in localizing a target stimulus. In this study, we explore the effect of presenting controlled auditory scenes with different amounts of visual and spatial cues during a sound localization task. A novel, gamified localization task is also presented. Preliminary results suggest that subjects who are exposed to audio-visual anchors show faster improvements than those who are not.