Research Seminars

Precedence Effect: An alternative model using Gaussian Mixtures

Hüseyin Hacıhabiboğlu
Centre for Communication Systems Research
University of Surrey, Guildford, GU1 2BQ

Wednesday 9 November 2005, Room 105.

Abstract

The precedence effect is an effective mechanism that allows effective sound source localisation in complex acoustical environments. The presence of sound sources as well as their reflections in such environments limits the usefulness of simple localisation cues such as ITD, ILD, and spectral cues. The auditory system deals with such complex acoustical environments by suppressing/masking the localisation cues conveyed by the reflections to some extent. The exact mechanism by which the precedence effect functions is as of yet unknown. Although, there exists a variety of computational models of the precedence effect, certain well-known properties of the precedence effect are not successfully modelled by these. We present an alternative model of sound source localisation under the precedence effect conditions. The model conceptualises each sound source as an information source, which encodes directional information. The results of a subjective localisation test will be presented together with possible application areas.

Bio

Hüseyin Hacıhabiboğlu has received a B.Sc.(Hons) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Ankara, Turkey (2000). Following a brief period of research assistantship in TUBITAK-BİLTEN, he received the Chevening scholarship for M.Sc. studies. He received M.Sc. (by research) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Bristol (2001), and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Queen's University Belfast (2004). He is now a research fellow at I-Lab/CCSR in the University of Surrey. His research interests include numerical modelling and simulation of room acoustics, room acoustics auralisation, multichannel audio reproduction, virtual auditory displays, psychoacoustics, and audio content analysis. He is a member of the IEEE, Audio Engineering Society (AES), European Acoustics Association (EAA), Turkish Acoustics Society (TAKDER), and Turkish Informatics Society (TBD).
http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/H.Hacihabiboglu/