Perceptual evaluation of binaural rendering of microphone array signals

Binaural audio is a key technology for creating immersive spatial sound fields in virtual and augmented reality (AR/VR). One of the key techniques in binaural audio is based on signals acquired with microphone arrays. Microphone arrays are flexible tools for capturing the entire spatial sound field and subsequently reproducing it binaurally to the listener. Recent advancements in rendering algorithms, along with the growing availability of the necessary hardware, have made binaural rendering of microphone array signals a popular technique in both research and the AR/VR industry. The perceptual evaluation of the binaural rendering is an integral part of designing and optimizing rendering algorithms. Throughout this thesis a series of listening experiments were conducted to investigate a broad range of perceptual aspects of binaural rendering of microphone array signals. The first part primarily focuses on technical constraints of the rendering of signals captured with real-world microphone arrays. In this context, various state-of-the-art methods were systematically compared. During the course of this work the perceptual consequence of one major constrained, the limited spatial resolution, was investigated in detail. The final chapter shifts the focus to binaural rendering in the consumer sector, emphasizing the role of plausibility as a key criterion. It explores the extent to which the findings from the earlier sections are relevant to binaural rendering for VR and AR applications.