Next generation 3D headphone

• Main Author: Taw, Kenneth Wai Pang.
• Other Authors: Gan Woon Seng
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/53325
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

3-D sound is good for situational awareness. With an audio display, the listener does not need to turn his or her head or eyes to focus on the changes in the differences between the virtual sound sources by just using the ears. Headphones are most suitable for recreating spatial sound. One can control the signals of the two channels independently without interference. Spatial sounds are reproduced using head-related transfer functions (HRTF) based binaural synthesis. However, this causes more front and back confusion. The Digital Signal Processing (DSP) Lab has found a more authentic way of recreating spatial sound. Using a set of non-individual HRTF by a frontal-emitter headphone, listeners can adapt seamlessly to correspond to their individual HRTFs. This minimizes the confusion and increases the precision of 3D audio playback system compared to the traditional headphones. The motivation to this project is to create a media player Graphic User Interface (GUI) to better show the perceptual difference of audio/video playback using normal headphone and 3D headphone. The user can switch between tracks easily with a simple click of a button. This allows the user to compare and contrast the differences instantly. Using Matlab, graphical analysis of the audio signal sound wave can also be displayed to compliment the listening. To enable this instant switch, three Window Media Players (WMPs) were embedded in the GUI. The foremost WMP window showing the image of the video, the overlapped two WMPs are suited for the audio part. The operation and playstate of three WMPs are synchronized. The switch is done by muting one of the two audio WMPs interchangeably. With this Matlab GUI, users can perform tests and demo on the different audio playback of the video and compare the difference between 3D and normal headphone through listening as well as the graphical representations.