Sound source localization with various ambisonics orders in virtual reality

To reproduce realistic audio-visual scenarios in the laboratory, Ambisonics is often used to present a sound field over loudspeakers and virtual reality glasses are used to present visual information. However, the application of both technologies, Ambisonics and virtual reality glasses, might affect the spatial cues for auditory localization, resulting in reduction of the localization accuracy. Furthermore, the combination of both technologies might introduce further errors. Here, we investigated how a head-mounted display affects the localization of virtual sound sources produced using either 1st, 3rd, 5th or 11th order Ambisonics with and without visual information. Preliminary results suggest that there is an effect of Ambisonics order on localization accuracy, mostly in the first order Ambisonics, but that the virtual reality glasses do not add an additional error. The localization error with first order ambisonics remained even with visual information as the perceived location matched better with other visual sources (i.e., nearby loudspeakers). Thus, virtual reality can be used in combination with Ambisonics without additional localization errors, but for localization accuracy it is better to use higher order Ambisonics.