This study examines the extent to which disparity in azimuth location between a sound cue and image target can be varied in cinematic virtual reality (VR) content, before presence is broken. It applies disparity consistently and inconsistently across five otherwise identical sound-image events. The investigation explores spatial presence, a sub-construct of presence, hypothesizing that consistently applied disparity in horizontal audio-visual correspondence elicits higher tolerance before presence is broken, than inconsistently applied disparity. Guidance about the interactions of subjective judgments and spatial presence for sound positioning is needed for non-specialists to leverage VR’s spatial sound environment. Although approximate compared to visual localization, auditory localization is paramount for VR: it is lighting condition-independent, omnidirectional, not as subject to occlusion, and creates presence.

Author: McArthur, Angela
Affiliations: BBC R&D, London, UK; Queen Mary University of London, London, UK(See document for exact affiliation information.)
AES Conference: 2016 AES International Conference on Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality (September 2016)
Paper Number: 1-2
Publication Date: September 21, 2016 Import into BibTeX
Subject: Sound Localization in 3D Space
Permalink: https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=18500

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