Parametric system for testing capability of auditory spatial positioning and method of providing parametric minimum audible angle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12042271-B2
Application number	US-202017439331-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 18, 2020
Priority date	Apr 29, 2019
Publication date	Jul 23, 2024
Grant date	Jul 23, 2024

Abstract

The invention discloses a parametric system for testing a capability of auditory spatial positioning and a method of providing a parametric minimum audible angle. The system includes: an host computer system calculating spatial movement data and communicating with a slave computer; a spatial movement system realizing control of any spatial position through circumferential movement, radial movement and vertical movement; a real-time three-dimensional display system built into the host computer system; an audio system randomly generates a type of audio data of a sound source and a sound source with equal-difference decibels; and a test system for matching human spatial positioning results to sound source spatial data and providing an objective evaluation. The invention further provides a method of providing a parametric minimum audible angle for a capability of auditory spatial positioning, the invention improves the control accuracy.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A parametric system for testing a capability of auditory spatial positioning, comprising:
a host computer system, calculating spatial movement data according to a spatial coordinate conversion algorithm based on nonlinear least squares and communicating with a slave computer;
a spatial movement system, realizing precise control of any spatial position through circumferential movement, radial movement and vertical movement;
a real-time three-dimensional display system, built into the host computer system to reconstruct a three-dimensional model in real time through a system image and feedback real-time movement data of the system on the basis of virtual reality technologies;
an audio system, randomly generating a type of audio data of a sound source and a sound source with equal-difference decibels; and
an objective evaluation system for subjects, testing the spatial positioning of the sound source by human ears, selecting spatial point data, matching to real spatial data of the sound source, and providing an objective evaluation.

2. The parametric system for testing a capability of auditory spatial positioning according to claim 1 , wherein the host computer system is composed of an industrial personal computer, a monitor with a 144 Hz refresh-rate, and a communication cable;
wherein the industrial personal computer randomly generates a time series and spatial positions of spatial test points of the sound source according to the spatial conversion algorithm on the basis of clinical indicators and physiological parameters of the subjects, caches such data in a data area, and sends the data to a driver of the spatial movement system by following a communication protocol.

3. The parametric system for testing a capability of auditory spatial positioning according to claim 2 , wherein the industrial personal computer arranges coordinates in a data list in such a manner that a spatial mid-point between the subject's ears as a current coordinate origin, converts the coordinates into circumferential movement pulses, radial movement pulses and vertical movement pulses, and temporarily stores these data in a data stack according to a time label.

4. The parametric system for testing a capability of auditory spatial positioning according to claim 3 , wherein the subject identifies the spatial position according to audio information of the sound source and selects the spatial position of a virtual entity on the subject's monitor, the industrial personal computer matches coordinate information of the spatial position selected by the subject with cache data of a corresponding spatial position in sequence, and provides a result whether the subject has correctly identified the spatial position of the sound source.

5. The parametric system for testing a capability of auditory spatial positioning according to claim 1 , wherein the audio system randomly generates optimal sound source audio data in a same number as that of spatial positions on the basis of clinical experience and the physiological parameters of the subjects and matches the sound source audio data randomly one by one to spatial coordinate data, and generated audio signals are randomly and repeatedly played according to a time sequence of coordinate points.

6. The parametric system for testing a capability of auditory spatial positioning according to claim 1 , wherein according to the objective evaluation system for subjects, a spatial position of the sound source is selected by a subject on an interface of the real-time three-dimensional display system, the spatial position selected by the subject is tried to match a spatial position in a cache list, and then the objective evaluation system for subjects provides an objective evaluation result of the subject's capability of spatial positioning.

7. A method of providing a parametric minimum audible angle for a capability of auditory spatial positioning, comprising the steps of:
classifying spatial positions to identify those with a highest correct rate and those with a lowest correct rate on the basis of a result of testing a subject's capability of spatial positioning;
selecting a random spatial point in the spatial positions with the highest correct rate and the lowest correct rate as an initial point of a sound source;
reducing a spatial distance between sound sources equal-proportionally between an edge point of an area and the initial point;
enabling, by a speed control module of a servo motor driver, a timeframe for movement from one to any other sound source point to be consistent; and
matching a spatial position selected by the subject to the spatial position of the sound source, keeping reducing the minimum audible angle if the matching is correct, and taking an audible angle greater than or equal to a threshold as the minimum audible angle for the subject.

8. The method of providing a parametric minimum audible angle for a capability of auditory spatial positioning according to claim 7 , wherein if the matching is incorrect, five sets of spatial position points are randomly updated near the current position on the basis of the current audible angle, and the matching is tried again.

9. The method of providing a parametric minimum audible angle for a capability of auditory spatial positioning according to claim 7 , wherein the reduction of the spatial distance between the sound sources concerns specifically changes of a horizontal angle, a vertical angle, and a distance between sphere centers.

Assignees

• Univ Tianjin

Inventors

• Ni Guangjian
• Xu Zihao
• Ming Dong
• Liu Baolu
• Zhang Haiyu
• Zheng Qi
• Pang Jia

Classifications

• H04S2400/11

  Positioning of individual sound objects, e.g. moving airplane, within a sound field (H04S2420/13 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04S7/304 Primary

  For headphones · CPC title

• A61B5/12

  Audiometering · CPC title

• A61B5/123 Primary

  subjective methods · CPC title