Wavelet analysis of head-related transfer functions

Abstract

The directional-dependent information in the head-related transfer function (HRTF) is important for the study of human sound localization system and the synthesis of virtual auditory signals. Its time-domain and frequency domain characteristics has been widely studied by researchers. The purpose of this paper is to explore the ability of discrete wavelet transform to describe the timescale characteristics of HRTFs. Both the time-domain characteristics and energy distribution of different frequency subbands were studied. Discrete wavelet analysis is found to be a new direction-dependence information showing the relation of the characteristics of the HRTFs to sound source directions.