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Updated: Apr 9, 2026

An Automated System for Sound Localization Testing in Hearing-Impaired Listeners
Published on: March 13, 2026
Controlling the perceived distance of an auditory object by manipulation of loudspeaker directivity
Mikko-Ville Laitinen1, Archontis Politis1, Ilkka Huhtakallio1
1Department of Signal Processing and Acoustics, School of Electrical Engineering, Aalto University, P.O. Box 13000, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland mikko-ville.laitinen@aalto.fi, archontis.politis@aalto.fi, ilkka.huhtakallio@aalto.fi, ville.pulkki@aalto.fi.
Abstract:
This work presents a method to control the perceived distance of an auditory object by changing the directivity pattern of a loudspeaker and consequently the direct-to-reverberant ratio at the listening spot. Control of the directivity pattern is achieved by beamforming using a compact multi-driver loudspeaker unit. A small-sized cubic array consisting of six drivers is assembled, and per driver beamforming filters are derived from directional measurements of the array. The proposed method is evaluated using formal listening tests. The results show that the perceived distance can be controlled effectively by directivity pattern modification.
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