Dynamic binaural head-movement cues override conflicting visual evidence of source location

Evidence

An interesting experimental set-up called pseudophone localization is presented in Figure 12.14. Signals from microphones are reproduced through headphones so that the subject perceives sounds as if having ears at the positions of the microphones. A particularly confusing situation is achieved if the angle β is 180◦, so that the ears are effectively interchanged, resulting frontal sound sources generating auditory events behind the listener, and vice versa (Blauert, 1996). One of us (Ville Pulkki) had a striking experience with such a device. A person was talking in front of me at a distance of about one metre. When I rotated my head with the pseudophone in action, the auditory object jumped immediately to behind me. Although the talking mouth of the person was clearly visible in front, the auditory object remained behind. The dynamic cues thus overrode the visual cues in this case. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1460

Categorization

• XREF: Cross-modal cue weighting — dynamic auditory cues beating vision parallels known ventriloquism-reversal results where non-visual cues win. — connects to: Sound source location is encoded by distinct dynamic binaural cues — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3181; Head movements resolve front-back ambiguity by creating direction-specific binaural cue changes — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1457; Dynamic auditory cues can override clear visual evidence of source location — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2217 (+5 more)
• SHARE: A person researching spatial audio or VR headsets would enjoy this first-person pseudophone anecdote.

Broader Connections

• Sound source location is encoded by distinct dynamic binaural cues #expands (0.85) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3181
• Head-motion-dependent sound changes are required for external sound localization #corroborates (0.85)
• Head movements resolve front-back ambiguity by creating direction-specific binaural cue changes #expands (0.80) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1457
• Head movement resolves directional ambiguity and explains headphone sounds seeming internal #expands (0.78) — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 290
• Headphone binaural reproduction fails without dynamic head-movement cues #qualifies (0.75) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1920
• Head-tracking binaural convolution yields convincing externalized spatial audio #qualifies (0.75)
• Dynamic auditory cues can override clear visual evidence of source location #corroborates (0.72) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2217
• Binaural direction cues alone cannot distinguish front from back or vertical source angle #contradicts (0.70) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 729