Audio personalisation method and system

A non-transitory, computer readable storage medium containing a computer program comprising computer executable instructions adapted to cause a computer system to perform an audio personalisation method for a user, by carrying out actions comprising:

• testing the user with an audio test, the audio test comprising:
• moving a portable device, comprising a position tracking mechanism and a speaker, to a plurality of predetermined test positions relative to the user's head;
• playing a test sound through the speaker of the portable device when within a threshold distance of a predetermined test position;
• and
• detecting the test sound using a microphone at least proximate to each of the user's ears, and associating resulting measurement data with the corresponding test position,
• wherein the resulting measurement data derived from the detected test sounds is characteristic of the user's head morphology;
• for a corpus of reference individuals for whom respective head-related transfer functions ‘HRTF’ s have been generated, comparing the measurement data from the user's audio test or an HRTF derived from this measurement data with corresponding measurement data of some or all respective reference individuals in the corpus or HRTFs of some or all respective reference individuals in the corpus;
• identifying a reference individual whose measurement data or HRTF best matches the measurement data or HRTF from the user's audio test;
• and
• using the HRTF of the identified reference individual for the user.

An audio personalisation system for a user, comprising

• a portable device (43, 49), comprising in turn a position tracking mechanism and a speaker;
• wherein the portable device is adapted to play a test sound through the speaker of the portable device when within a threshold distance of a predetermined test position and as the portable device is moved to a plurality of predetermined test positions relative to the user's head during an audio test of the user;
• at least a first microphone (712) adapted to detect the test sound when at least proximate to each of the user's ears;
• an association processor adapted to associate resulting user measurement data with the test position, wherein the resulting measurement data derived from the detected test sounds is characteristic of the user's head morphology;
• a comparison processor adapted to compare the measurement data from the user's audio test or a head-related transfer function ‘HRTF’ derived from this measurement data with corresponding measurement data of some or all respective reference individuals in a corpus of reference individuals for whom respective HRTFs have been generated, or HRTFs of some or all respective reference individuals in the corpus;
• an identification processor adapted to identify a reference individual whose measurement data or HRTF best matches the measurement data or HRTF from the user's audio test;
• and
• an adoption processor operable to cause the HRTF of the identified reference individual to be used for the user.