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Why Artificial Head Measurement Technology?

Covering up the ears is an unlikely approach to evaluating sound. Yet this is what conventional analysis techniques in acoustic and vibration measuring technology actually amount to. This is because recordings made with conventional measurement microphones are not appropriate to aurally-equivalent evaluation of sound situations, since essential acoustic information, such as the spatial constellation of sound sources and the selectivity of aural perception, cannot be captured. Yet it is actually the three-dimensional localization of sound sources and the way acoustic signals are processed by the human auditory apparatus which are vital factors in how sound is perceived.

Humans are able to localize a sound source spatially. Human hearing completes this localization automatically, based on the delay and level differences of the acoustic signal at either ear. This is because the outer ear produces directionally dependent filtering of the sound signal. The filter effect is based on modification of sound wave propagation through attenuation, diffraction, reflection and resonance. In this process, the geometrical (anatomical) characteristics of the head and shoulder, along with the ear pinna, play a decisive role. The ability of human hearing to select individual sound sources when exposed to a noise back-ground is also based on the ability to localize.

Binaural hearing cannot be simulated by using an arrangement of two measurement microphones as "ears". Aurally-accurate, true-to-the-original recordings are only possible by taking account of the acoustic filtering properties of the head and ears.

The characteristics of human hearing are very different from those of conventional sound sensors. Signal processing in the human ear, involving identification of amplitude distribution, spectral composition and time structure, is extremely complex. The listener perceives a comprehensive auditory impression of an acoustic event. At the same time, as listeners, our acoustic memories are very short. The Artificial Head measuring technology which HEAD acoustics has developed allows aurally-accurate recording of acoustic signals, together with storage of acoustic events. Playback of an Artificial Head recordings creates the same auditory impression as if the listener had been able to experience directly the original sound event.

Through true-to-the-original recording and playback of any sound event (including digital storage of these sound events) this system can be used to complete and document comparative, aurally-equivalent evaluation of a wide range of sound situations. At the same time, the compatibility of Artificial Head technology to conventional measuring technology means that subjective and objective sound field analysis can be combined in a single investigation.

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