Binaural auralization of proposed room modifications based on measured omnidirectional room impulse responses

Abstract

The auralization of rooms with dynamic binaural synthesis using binaural room impulse responses (BRIRs) is an established approach in virtual audio. The BRIRs can either be obtained by simulations or by measurements. Up to now changed acoustical properties, as they occur when a room is altered in a renovation, cannot easily be considered in a measurement-based approach. The paper presents a new method to auralize modifications of existing rooms. The authors already have shown in a previous publication that such an auralization can be done by appropriately shaping the reverberation tail of an impulse response. Furthermore, the authors have presented an approach to synthesize BRIRs based on one omnidirectional room impulse response (RIR). In this paper both methods are combined: A single measured omnidirectional RIR is enhanced and adapted to create a binaural representation of a modified room. A listening experi-ment has been performed to evaluate the procedure and to investigate differences between synthesized and measured BRIRs. The advantages of this method are obvious: Planned room modifications can be made audible without complex measurements or simulations; just one omnidirectional RIR is required to provide a binaural representation of the desired acoustic treatment.