Method and system for developing a head-related transfer function adapted to an individual

1. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions which when executed on a processor, causes the processor to perform actions comprising:

performing a statistical analysis leading to a reduction in a dimensionality of the 3D or 2D ear space of the database, and representing each 3D or 2D ear by a vector of first statistical parameters, wherein values of the components of each vector are values obtained by projecting each ear into an ear space of reduced dimensionality;

performing a statistical analysis leading to a reduction in the dimensionality of a head-related-transfer-function space of the database, and representing each transfer function by a vector of second statistical parameters, wherein values of the components of each vector are values obtained by projecting each transfer function into the transfer-function space of reduced dimensionality;

performing an analysis of relationships between the first statistical parameters of the 3D or 2D ear space and the second statistical parameters of the head-related-transfer-function space;

determining, from said relationship analysis and said statistical analysis of the 3D or 2D ear space, a function for calculating a head-related transfer function from data representative of at least one ear;

based at least in part on the determined function for calculating a head-related transfer function, generating an individual-specific head-related transfer function for high frequencies above a threshold; and

generating an individual-specific head-related transfer function for low frequencies below the threshold by:

sampling ranges of possible values of human morphological parameters from a database containing data relating to human morphology;

defining a mesh based at least in part on a parametric model of the sampled possible values of the human morphological parameters;

calculating low-frequency template transfer functions associated with the mesh;

estimating the value of human morphological parameters of the individual, the estimating based on at least one face-on or profile photograph of the individual; and

calculating the individual-specific head-related transfer function for low frequencies based on at least the estimated value of the human morphological parameters of the individual and the calculated low-frequency template transfer functions associated with the mesh.

2. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to perform actions comprising densely matching points relating to respective positions of the ears of the database.

3. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to perform actions comprising calculating an individual-specific head-related transfer function using said calculating function and at least one photograph of at least one ear of the individual.

4. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 3 , wherein calculating a head-related transfer function is an iterative step.

5. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 4 , wherein calculating a head-related transfer function comprises:

a first iterative substep of estimating at least one postural parameter of the individual in said at least one photograph; and

a second iterative substep of estimating optimized statistical parameters representing at least one ear of the individual in the ear space.

6. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the data representative of at least one ear comprises one or more point clouds.

7. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to perform actions comprising:

estimating, from the at least one face-on or profile photograph of the individual, a relative ear size, where the relative ear size is estimated relative to a body size of the individual;

frequency scaling the individual-specific head-related transfer function for high frequencies; and

fusing the individual-specific transfer function for low frequencies and the frequency scaled individual-specific head-related transfer function for high frequencies in order to thereby obtain the head-related transfer function of the individual.

8. An audio processing system for generating an individual-specific head-related transfer function, the system comprising:

a database containing ear data and corresponding head-related transfer functions;

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions which when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform actions comprising:

performing a statistical analysis leading to a reduction in a dimensionality of the 3D or 2D ear space of the database, and representing each 3D or 2D ear by a vector of first statistical parameters, wherein values of the components of each vector are values obtained by projecting each ear into an ear space of reduced dimensionality;

performing a statistical analysis leading to a reduction in the dimensionality of a head-related-transfer-function space of the database, and representing each transfer function by a vector of second statistical parameters, wherein values of the components of each vector are values obtained by projecting each transfer function into the transfer-function space of reduced dimensionality;

performing an analysis of relationships between the first statistical parameters of the 3D or 2D ear space and the second statistical parameters of the head-related-transfer-function space;

determining, from said relationship analysis and said statistical analysis of the 3D or 2D ear space, a function for calculating a head-related transfer function from data representative of at least one ear;

based at least in part on the determined function for calculating a head-related transfer function, generating an individual-specific head-related transfer function for high frequencies above a threshold; and

generating an individual-specific head-related transfer function for low frequencies below the threshold by:

sampling ranges of possible values of human morphological parameters from a database containing data relating to human morphology;

defining a mesh based at least in part on a parametric model of the sampled possible values of the human morphological parameters;

calculating low-frequency template transfer functions for the mesh;

estimating the value of human morphological parameters of the individual, the estimating based on at least one face-on or profile photograph of the individual; and

calculating the individual-specific head-related transfer function for low frequencies based on at least the estimated value of the human morphological parameters of the individual and the calculated low-frequency template transfer functions associated with the mesh.

9. A method comprising:

performing a statistical analysis leading to a reduction in a dimensionality of the 3D or 2D ear space of the database, and representing each 3D or 2D ear by a vector of first statistical parameters, wherein values of the components of each vector are values obtained by projecting each ear into an ear space of reduced dimensionality;

performing a statistical analysis leading to a reduction in the dimensionality of a head-related-transfer-function space of the database, and representing each transfer function by a vector of second statistical parameters, wherein values of the components of each vector are values obtained by projecting each transfer function into the transfer-function space of reduced dimensionality;

performing an analysis of relationships between the first statistical parameters of the 3D or 2D ear space and the second statistical parameters of the head-related-transfer-function space;

determining, from said relationship analysis and said statistical analysis of the 3D or 2D ear space, a function for calculating a head-related transfer function from data representative of at least one ear;

based at least in part on the determined function for calculating a head-related transfer function, generating an individual-specific head-related transfer function for high frequencies above a threshold; and

generating an individual-specific head-related transfer function for low frequencies below the threshold by:

sampling ranges of possible values of human morphological parameters from a database containing data relating to human morphology;

defining a mesh based at least in part on a parametric model of the sampled possible values of the human morphological parameters;

calculating low-frequency template transfer functions for the mesh;

estimating the value of human morphological parameters of the individual, the estimating based on at least one face-on or profile photograph of the individual; and

calculating the individual-specific head-related transfer function for low frequencies based on at least the estimated value of the human morphological parameters of the individual and the calculated low-frequency template transfer functions associated with the mesh.