Manipulationof source width based on sound field reproduction

Abstract

In this study, a method is proposed to generate an extended virtual source enabling the extension of the perceived source width.In various auditory scenes, a sound source delivers the sensations of its size and location. The perceived source width is a spatial auditory impression related to the source size. Among the source width attributes, individual source width (ISW) is defined as the perceivedwidth of an individualsound source disregarding a room effect. Accordingly, inrepresentinga virtualsource containing the size attribute, it is required to manipulate ISW as well as localization.The perceived source width is inversely proportional to the similarity of the listener's earsignals. Thedissimilar pressuresat both earscan be generated byrandomizing the spectralphase distributions. In this paper, it attempts to produce the randomized phase distributions in a large areabased on the sound field reproduction. To achieve this goal,a target sound field is designed such that the radiation patternis randomly changed with respect to frequency. A direct solution for reproducing the designedfield is then derived in terms of integral approach. Simulation results show that the proposed method can manipulatethe perceived source widthover a largearea.