The contribution of pinna to the discriminate the vertical angle for virtual reality technology

How to present auditory information with high performance and low cost is a very important technology for developing a new virtual reality system. In this study, we focus on human auditory characteristic on vertical angle discrimination in sagittal planes, and try to get basic research results for virtual reality technology. We measured the ability of human listeners to discriminate white noise bursts in the absence of binaural discrimination cues. The Minimum Audible Angle (MAA) thresholds were obtained for five subjects in a two-alternative, forced-choice, adaptive paradigm as a function of the orientation of the array of sources on the vertical plane (elevation). The subjects were normal hearing students, and wore a monaural earplug to reduce cues in sound level and timing. Experiments measured discrimination of the vertical angle in eight planes parallel to the median plane (0° position). Experimental results showed that the sound source position can discriminate by the vertical plane when subject of normal monaural hearing condition wore a monaural earplug. However, the discriminate ability has remarkable worsened then normal hearing condition. The under hemi-field sound source orientation discriminate the ability to be higher than the upper hemi-field at the 0°, 45°, 90°, 135° and 180° reference positions, but the under hemi-field and sound source orientation discriminate the ability is similarly with upper hemi-field at the 180°, 225°, 270°, 315°and 0° reference positions in the horizontal plane. Furthermore, the means MAA thresholds was not statistically significant differences at the small and big pinna mold conditions.