ANGULAR RESOLUTION AND LOCALIZATION WITH A BINAURAL MICROPHONE ARRAY

摘要

We studied the localization of sounds heard over a binaural linear microphone array when theangular separation of its arms was varied. Each individual arm contained nine cardioid electretmicrophones that produced a highly directional pattern of sensitivity. The desirable angularseparation for this binaural array was assessed with three sound localization tasks by measuring(a) the minimum audible angle, (b) the limit of lateral movement for the inter-cranial soundimage, and(c) the accuracy of pointing the array.The pointing study employed array separations of 30”, 45”, and 60’ and signal-to-noise ratiosof +5, -5, and -15 dB. Pointing accuracy was best for a separation of 60“, and this performancewas indistinguishable from pointing during unaided listening conditions. A complete descriptionof this work is available in Ricard, et al. (1997). These results suggest that occluded-ear, soundlocalization aided witb. artificial sensors can be made acceptable by making the system’s forwardcoverage similar to that of normal human listeners.