Pinna, head, and torso shapes encode spatial direction into ear-canal sounds

Evidence

The complex shapes of the external ears, the pinnae, combined with shapes of the head and torso modify the sounds arriving at the ear canals differently for sounds arriving from different directions. This spatial encoding can be measured with tiny microphones in the ear canal or at the eardrum so that we know how the sounds originating in different directions are modified on their way to the ears. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 286

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Head and pinna scattering imprint direction-dependent spectral notches onto the ear signal. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1451; Each person’s unique ear shape requires individualized acoustic rendering for 3-D audio — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 736