3D Sound Rendering for Multiple Sound Sources Based on Fuzzy Clustering

Masashi OKADA  Nobuyuki IWANAGA  Tomoya MATSUMURA  Takao ONOYE  Wataru KOBAYASHI 

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Fundamentals of Electronics, Communications and Computer Sciences  Vol.E93-A  No.11  pp.2163-2172
Publication Date: 2010/11/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1337
Print ISSN: 0916-8508
Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Section on Smart Multimedia & Communication Systems)
Category: 
Keyword: 
head-related transfer function (HRTF),  sound localization,  multiple sound sources,  fuzzy clustering, 

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Summary: 
In this paper, we propose a new 3D sound rendering method for multiple sound sources with limited computational resources. The method is based on fuzzy clustering, which achieves dual benefits of two general methods based on amplitude-panning and hard clustering. In embedded systems where the number of reproducible sound sources is restricted, the general methods suffer from localization errors and/or serious quality degradation, whereas the proposed method settles the problems by executing clustering-process and amplitude-panning simultaneously. Computational cost evaluation based on DSP implementation and subjective listening test have been performed to demonstrate the applicability for embedded systems and the effectiveness of the proposed method.