actually, I can hear birds downwards from my balcony - not directly below, but
quite steeply below - but they are real birds, not an artificial sound field.
But as to whether our acuity "below" is as good as elsewhere - well - it's not
that great upwards (minimum audible angle about 10 degrees? - can't remember a
reference - anyone?) as against dead ahead (0 degrees azimuth, elevation) where
the theoretical best is in the order of 1 - 2 degrees (ITDs, in the lab -
Mills, 1950-something)
Naturally, own-body shadowing at hf (especially if one is too fond of beer) is
an important consideration.
One can understand that we're not "fully 3-D" - we live on the ground and this
consistent regularity might be expected to be incorporated phylogenetically
(species level) as well as ontogenetically (individual
experience-and-development)
Birds have evolved with quite different environmental challenges. They are
probably better at vectoring movements, and if they could converse, probably
would not have the same kind of "azimuth + elevation" thinking that we do
But the key point in all this is that head movement and locomotion are
intrinsic to our perceptual performance - we're simply not static receivers of
signals. So "down" is quite easily discernible in the same way that front-back
reversals (and other manifestations of "cones of confusion") can be quickly
disambiguated with a bit of movement, in the wild.
So the "down problem" in many 3-d sound systems is likely to be something
else...
Dr Peter Lennox
School of Technology,
Faculty of Arts, Design and Technology
University of Derby, UK
e: p.len...@derby.ac.uk
t: 01332 593155
________________________________________
From: Sursound [sursound-boun...@music.vt.edu] On Behalf Of Dave Malham
[dave.mal...@york.ac.uk]
Sent: 26 November 2014 11:39
To: Surround Sound discussion group
Subject: Re: [Sursound] Oculus Rift Visual Demo + Ambisonic Audio Available?
Have I really heard sounds from below me?? Yes, all the time - every time
I walk around (other than a really, really, soft carpet), in stair wells
let alon leaning out of windows, in cable cars, in microlights, hot air
balloons, mesh floored lighting bridges - I could go on and on (and I
frequently do :-). Mind you, it's not as robust as horizontal imaging -
witness what happens if you play recordings of birds flying below you (top
of Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire), it's impossible - or very nearly so - to
hear them as anything but above.
Dave
On 26 November 2014 at 03:22, Sampo Syreeni <de...@iki.fi> wrote:
> On 2014-11-21, dw wrote:
>
> The state-of-the-art finds it very difficult to render sounds below the
>> listener.
>>
>
> True. But then, at the same time, have you ever truly heard sounds from
> right below yourself? Does even the human auditory system *really* know
> what it means to "hear something from below"?
>
> Think about it or awhile. In the psychoacoustic sense there actually might
> not even *be* such a thing "due below".
> --
> Sampo Syreeni, aka decoy - de...@iki.fi, http://decoy.iki.fi/front
> +358-40-3255353, 025E D175 ABE5 027C 9494 EEB0 E090 8BA9 0509 85C2
> _______________________________________________
> Sursound mailing list
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>
--
As of 1st October 2012, I have retired from the University.
These are my own views and may or may not be shared by the University
Dave Malham
Honorary Fellow, Department of Music
The University of York
York YO10 5DD
UK
'Ambisonics - Component Imaging for Audio'
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