Ambisonics Encoder for Wearable Array with Improved Binaural Reproduction
Abstract
Ambisonics Signal Matching (ASM) is a recently proposed signal-independent approach to encoding Ambisonic signal from wearable microphone arrays, enabling efficient and standardized spatial sound reproduction. However, reproduction accuracy is currently limited due to the non-ideal layout of the microphones. This research introduces an enhanced ASM encoder that reformulates the loss function by integrating a Binaural Signal Matching (BSM) term into the optimization framework. The aim of this reformulation is to improve the accuracy of binaural reproduction when integrating the Ambisonic signal with Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs), making the encoded Ambisonic signal better suited for binaural reproduction. This paper first presents the mathematical formulation developed to align the ASM and BSM objectives in a single loss function, followed by a simulation study with a simulated microphone array mounted on a rigid sphere representing a head-mounted wearable array. The analysis shows that improved binaural reproduction with the encoded Ambisonic signal can be achieved using this joint ASM-BSM optimization, thereby enabling higher-quality binaural playback for virtual and augmented reality applications based on Ambisonics.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2507.04108,
title = {Ambisonics Encoder for Wearable Array with Improved Binaural Reproduction},
author = {Yhonatan Gayer and Vladimir Tourbabin and Zamir Ben-Hur and David Alon and Boaz Rafaely},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.04108},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
Published in Forum Acousticum 2025, 6 pages, 2 figures