Article
The Effect of Audio-Visual Room Divergence on the Localization of Real Sound Sources in Virtual Reality (en)
* Presenting author
Abstract:
Virtual Reality (VR) is a promising tool to study sensory processing in naturalistic and well-controlled environments. A divergence between visual and auditory room dimensions might affect sound source localization. In addition, it stands toreason that the well-documented underestimation of egocentric distances in visual virtual environments might also affect spatial hearing. We therefore conducted a VR study to investigate the influence of audio-visual room divergence on sound localization. In VR, 30 participants performed a sound localization task. As within-subject factor, we manipulated the visual virtual room, which was either an exact replication of the laboratory in which the participants were placed (convergent room) or a scaled version (doubled room volume - divergent room). Different speech stimuli were presented via three real loudspeakers in the laboratory. We hypothesized that accuracy of localization, e.g., distance estimation, will be significantly higher in the visual congruent than in the visual divergent room. Based on our prior findings, we also predict a systematic overestimation of the sound source distance and a continuous improvement of the accuracy of localization over the course of the experiment in both conditions. From the results, conclusions can be drawn for the investigation of (virtual) acoustics in VR.