Abstract:
This work investigates the influence of the head, torso, and pinna dimensions on spatial hearing. As a first attempt to construct a detailed database, a statistical analysis of head and torso dimensions representing the data from children up to adults is made. Using the Boundary Element Method (BEM), the spatial cues can be derived from CAD models of the head. These models were created by varying each parameter at a time, in order to investigate the effect of only this parameter on the HRTF, its impulse response, and on the spatial cues for different incidences of sound. The most important head dimensions are the height of the head, the width of the head, its length and the distance from the ear to the shoulder. The pinna can be described by the height, breadth and rotation of the ear and by the cavum conchae height, depth and breadth. Thus, for the construction of artificial heads in the future, the results presented here indicate in which dimension larger tolerances could be accepted and which dimensions must be chosen more accurately.