Binaural Directivity Patterns for Normal and Aided Human Hearing

Abstract

The aim of this brief report was to investigate binaural directivity patterns for normal and aided hearing, as opposed to conventional monaural measures.

Head-related transfer functions for an artificial head measured at the entrance to the ear canal and above the pinnae and a binaural loudness model for directional sounds were used to estimate binaural directivity patterns for normal human hearing and behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing devices in the horizontal plane.

The results show that binaural directivity patterns are smoother than the corresponding monaural patterns, and that there are clear frequency-dependent differences in binaural directivity between the two measurement positions.

The data can be used in the signal processing of BTE hearing aid systems to mimic the binaural directivity of normal, unoccluded ears.