Distance Variation Function for Simulation of Near-Field Virtual Auditory Space

We present a method for simulating a near-field sound source in virtual auditory space (VAS). The method scales individualised HRTFs, measured at a distance of Im to arbitrary distances in the near-field. It uses a model of the acoustic scattering for a point-source on a rigid sphere to calculate a distance variation function (DVF) to apply to the HRTFs. A sound localisation experiment was conducted in VAS with three subjects to evaluate the acoustic spatial fidelity of this method. Results show that with the modified HRTFs directional localisation is generally maintained at different distances and there is reasonable correlation between the perceived distance and target distance for distances up to 50 cm from the centre of the subject´s head