Retrieval-Augmented Neural Field for HRTF Upsampling and Personalization

Yoshiki Masuyama; Gordon Wichern; François G. Germain; Christopher Ick; Jonathan Le Roux

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arXiv · 2501.13017

Retrieval-Augmented Neural Field for HRTF Upsampling and Personalization

Yoshiki Masuyama·Gordon Wichern·François G. Germain·Christopher Ick·Jonathan Le Roux

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Abstract

Head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) with dense spatial grids are desired for immersive binaural audio generation, but their recording is time-consuming. Although HRTF spatial upsampling has shown remarkable progress with neural fields, spatial upsampling only from a few measured directions, e.g., 3 or 5 measurements, is still challenging. To tackle this problem, we propose a retrieval-augmented neural field (RANF). RANF retrieves a subject whose HRTFs are close to those of the target subject from a dataset. The HRTF of the retrieved subject at the desired direction is fed into the neural field in addition to the sound source direction itself. Furthermore, we present a neural network that can efficiently handle multiple retrieved subjects, inspired by a multi-channel processing technique called transform-average-concatenate. Our experiments confirm the benefits of RANF on the SONICOM dataset, and it is a key component in the winning solution of Task 2 of the listener acoustic personalization challenge 2024.

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Yoshiki Masuyama, Gordon Wichern, François G. Germain, Christopher Ick, Jonathan Le Roux. 2025-01-22. Retrieval-Augmented Neural Field for HRTF Upsampling and Personalization. https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.13017

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