Intercorrelation between sound design, binaural and non-binaural audio systems : Effects on general vertical localization precision and reaction time in a non-visual directional choice task 3D game

Abstract: Spatialization of audio in the vertical plane has historically been limited. Instead, sound designers have used basic DSP to create pseudo height effects to explain the positions of corresponding objects. In recent years, binaural synthesis has become more widespread following an increase in the use of software rendering methods. With these advancements, uncertainty seems to be present around best practices when combining sound design with binaural synthesis for vertical placement of audio cues in games. This thesis compares the vertical localization performance between head related transfer functions (HRTFs) and stereo interaural level difference (ILD), when sounds have been designed with basic DSP to have auditory spatial schema (ASC). A sort of embedment of positional information. It was found that there was no significant time difference between the conditions, while hitcount, the number of correct directions selected, displayed a significant difference in some of the comparisons.