Article
Assessing the Suitability of a Bone-Conduction Headphone for Augmented Reality (en)
* Presenting author
Abstract:
Augmented acoustic reality requires acoustically transparent headphones to make external sound sources audible. This can generally be achieved with a variety of devices such as open headphones or smart headphones with hear-through technology. However, most consumer headphones alter the sound of external sources depending on their position, which can cause coloration and decreased localization accuracy. Headphones that minimize the influence on external sound fields are available for scientific purposes, but are impractical for consumer applications. In such cases, small extraaural headphones and bone conduction headphones appear to be promising due to their small size and the distance that they can be placed away from the outer ear. We present a perceptual assessment of a selected bone-conduction headphone regarding its transfer function, linearity, and channel separation along with an analysis of its effect on external sound fields. In addition, we provide a generic headphone compensation filter for acoustic virtual and augmented reality applications using the tested headphone.