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Investigating the Influence of Environmental Acoustics and Playback Device for Audio Augmented Reality Applications

Bhattacharyya, J. , Picinali, L., Vinciarelli, A. and Brewster, S. (2023) Investigating the Influence of Environmental Acoustics and Playback Device for Audio Augmented Reality Applications. 6th International Conference on Audio for Games, Tokyo, Japan, 27-29 Apr 2024. (Accepted for Publication)

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Abstract

Presenting plausible virtual sounds to a user is an important challenge within audio augmented reality (AAR), where virtual sounds must appear as a real part of the audio environment. Despite this, there is limited understanding of how different reproductions of an environment’s acoustics contribute to the plausibility of virtual sounds within that environment, or how that informs the reproduction system a developer should target for their given application. We present two studies comparing different room impulse responses (varying in spatial resolution and spectral bandwidth) and playback devices (headphones and audio glasses) to investigate their influence on the plausibility and user perception of virtual sounds. We do so using both a listening test in a controlled environment, and then an AAR game played in two real-world locations. Our results suggest that, particularly in a real-world AAR application context, users have low sensitivity for differences between reverberation models, but that the reproduction of an environment’s acoustics positively influences both the plausibility of a virtual sound, as well as its externalisation. These benefits are most pronounced when played over headphones, but users were positive about the use of audio glasses for an AAR application, despite their lower perceptual fidelity. Overall, our findings suggest both lower fidelity environmental acoustics and audio glasses are appropriate for future AAR applications, allowing AAR developers to use less computing resources and maintain real-world awareness without compromising user experience.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item
Additional Information:	This work was supported by the SONICOM project (www.sonicom.eu), funded by the Horizon 2020 programme under grant agreement 101017743.
Keywords:	audio augmented reality, sound plausibility, acoustic transparency, virtual acoustics
Status:	Accepted for Publication
Refereed:	Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:	Bhattacharyya, Jake and Brewster, Professor Stephen and Vinciarelli, Professor Alessandro
Authors:	Bhattacharyya, J., Picinali, L., Vinciarelli, A., and Brewster, S.
College/School:	College of Science and Engineering College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
Research Group:	Multimodal Interaction Group
Related URLs:	Publisher
Data DOI:	10.5281/zenodo.10605358

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Funder and Project Information

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
311886		SONICOM	Alessandro Vinciarelli	European Commission (EC)	101017743	Computing Science

References

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Deposit and Record Details

ID Code:	320650
Depositing User:	Jake Bhattacharyya
Datestamp:	20 Feb 2024 12:21
Last Modified:	21 Feb 2024 02:32
Date of acceptance:	17 December 2023
Date of first online publication:	27 April 2024
Date Deposited:	20 February 2024
Data Availability Statement:	Yes