Estimation of interaural level difference based on anthropometry and its effect on sound localization

Individualization of head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) is important for highly accurate sound localization systems such as virtual auditory displays. A method to estimate interaural level differences (ILDs) from a listener's anthropometry is presented in this paper to avoid the burden of direct measurement of HRTFs. The main result presented in this paper is that localization is improved with nonindividualized HRTF if ILD is fitted to the listener. First, the relationship between ILDs and the anthropometric parameters was analyzed using multiple regression analysis. The azimuthal variation of the ILDs in each 1/3-octave band was then estimated from the listener's anthropometric parameters. A psychoacoustical experiment was carried out to evaluate its effectiveness. The experimental results show that the adjustment of the frequency characteristics of ILDs for a listener with the proposed method is effective for localization accuracy.