Audio personalisation method and system

An audio personalisation method for reference individuals, comprising the steps of:

• obtaining respective head related transfer functions ‘HRTFs’ for a corpus of reference individuals;
• testing respective reference individuals on a calibration test, the calibration test comprising:
• requiring a reference individual to match a test sound to a test location, either by controlling the position of the presented sound or controlling the position of the presented location, for a sequence of test matches,
• each test sound being presented at a position using a default head related transfer function ‘HRTF’,
• receiving an estimate of each matching location from the reference individual, and
• calculating a respective error for each estimate, to generate a sequence of location estimate errors for the respective tested reference individual;
• and
• associating the sequence of location estimate errors for the reference individual with their respective obtained HRTF.

A non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium containing a computer program comprising computer executable instructions, which when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to perform an audio personalisation method for a first user, comprising the steps of:

• testing a first user on a calibration test, the calibration test comprising:
• requiring a user to match a test sound to a test location, either by controlling the position of the presented sound or controlling the position of the presented location, for a sequence of test matches,
• each test sound being presented at a position using a default head related transfer function ‘HRTF’,
• receiving an estimate of each matching location from the first user, and
• calculating a respective error for each estimate, to generate a sequence of location estimate errors for the first user;
• and
• comparing at least some of the location estimate errors for the first user with estimate errors of the same locations previously generated for at least a subset of a corpus of reference individuals;
• identifying a reference individual with the closest match of compared location estimation errors to those of the first user;
• and
• using an HRTF, previously obtained for the identified reference individual, for the first user.

An audio personalisation system for a first user, comprising

• a testing processor configured to test a first user on a calibration test, the calibration test comprising:
• requiring a user to match a test sound to a test location, either by controlling the position of the presented sound or controlling the position of the presented location, for a sequence of test matches, each test sound being presented at a position using a default head related transfer function ‘HRTF’,
• receiving an estimate of each matching location from the first user, and
• calculating a respective error for each estimate, to generate a sequence of location estimate errors for the first user;
• and
• a comparison processor configured to cause a comparison at least some of the location estimate errors for the first user with estimate errors of the same locations previously generated for at least a subset of a corpus of reference individuals;
• the comparison processor being configured to identify a reference individual with the closest match of compared location estimation errors to those of the first user;
• and
• an HRTF processor configured to use an HRTF, previously obtained for the identified reference individual, for the first user.

An audio personalisation system for reference individuals, comprising

• Storage configured to store respective head related transfer functions ‘HRTFs’ for a corpus of reference individuals;
• a testing processor configured to testing respective reference individuals on a calibration test, the calibration test comprising:
• requiring a reference individual to match a test sound to a test location, either by controlling the position of the presented sound or controlling the position of the presented location, for a sequence of test matches, each test sound being presented at a position using a default head related transfer function ‘HRTF’,
• receiving an estimate of each matching location from the reference individual, and
• calculating a respective error for each estimate, to generate a sequence of location estimate errors for the respective tested reference individual;
• and
• an association processor configured to associating the sequence of location estimate errors for the reference individual with their respective obtained HRTF.