Sound Localization for Humanoid Robots - Building Audio-Motor Maps based on the HRTF

— Being able to localize the origin of a sound is important for our capability to interact with the environment. Humans can localize a sound source in both the horizontal and vertical plane with only two ears, using the head related transfer function HRTF, or more specifically features like interaural time difference ITD, interaural level difference ILD, and notches in the frequency spectra. In robotics notches have been left out since they are considered complex and difficult to use. As they are the main cue for humans’ ability to estimate the elevation of the sound source this have to be compensated by adding more microphones or very large and asymmetric ears. In this paper, we present a novel method to extract the notches that makes it possible to accurately estimate the location of a sound source in both the horizontal and vertical plane using only two microphones and human-like ears. We suggest the use of simple spiral-shaped ears that has similar properties to the human ear...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: IROS
• Authors: Jonas Hörnstein, Manuel Lopes, José Santos-Victor, Francisco Lacerda
• Keywords: Head Related Transfer Function, IROS 2006, Robotics, Sound Source, Vertical Plane