TY - JOUR
T1 - VR360-SSL
T2 - Towards Accessible and Clinically-Viable 360° Sound Source Localization in Virtual Reality
AU - Yin, Yihan
AU - Wang, Zhimin
AU - Hu, Ying
AU - Zhang, Ke
AU - Lu, Feng
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2026 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).
PY - 2026/6
Y1 - 2026/6
N2 - Sound source localization (SSL) capability serves as a crucial indicator of early hearing impairment, with applications in hearing disorder diagnosis, hearing aid fitting, and neurodegenerative disease screening. However, traditional SSL testing requires expensive professional equipment (over $500,000) and dedicated soundproof facilities (over 30 m2), significantly limiting accessibility for large-scale screening programs. While VR-based systems offer a promising alternative, they face fundamental challenges when extending to full 360° scenarios, particularly severe confusion between front and rear sound sources and interaction fatigue for rear target selection. To address these limitations, we propose the VR360-SSL system, the first 360° VR-based screening and rehabilitation tracking tool. Our approach introduces a frequency domain enhancement strategy for non-individualized head-related transfer functions that perceptually compensates for front-back ambiguity by reinforcing high-frequency cues for front sources and enhancing low-frequency components for rear sources. We further incorporate adaptive interaction modalities (eye gaze and hand gesture) with pre-experiment assessment that matches interaction modes to users' VR experience and spatial imagination abilities. Preliminary experiments with 32 participants (including 23 normal hearing (NH) individuals and 9 single-sided deafness (SSD) patients) indicate that the system provides localization trends consistent with real sound field environments and successfully identifies performance gradients across different hearing impairment severities. Front-back confusion rates were significantly reduced to levels comparable with real-world medical setups. By reducing costs to a single VR headset, our system enables SSL testing expansion from specialized clinics to primary care and community-based screening scenarios, particularly suitable for VR-naive elderly populations and resource-limited areas.
AB - Sound source localization (SSL) capability serves as a crucial indicator of early hearing impairment, with applications in hearing disorder diagnosis, hearing aid fitting, and neurodegenerative disease screening. However, traditional SSL testing requires expensive professional equipment (over $500,000) and dedicated soundproof facilities (over 30 m2), significantly limiting accessibility for large-scale screening programs. While VR-based systems offer a promising alternative, they face fundamental challenges when extending to full 360° scenarios, particularly severe confusion between front and rear sound sources and interaction fatigue for rear target selection. To address these limitations, we propose the VR360-SSL system, the first 360° VR-based screening and rehabilitation tracking tool. Our approach introduces a frequency domain enhancement strategy for non-individualized head-related transfer functions that perceptually compensates for front-back ambiguity by reinforcing high-frequency cues for front sources and enhancing low-frequency components for rear sources. We further incorporate adaptive interaction modalities (eye gaze and hand gesture) with pre-experiment assessment that matches interaction modes to users' VR experience and spatial imagination abilities. Preliminary experiments with 32 participants (including 23 normal hearing (NH) individuals and 9 single-sided deafness (SSD) patients) indicate that the system provides localization trends consistent with real sound field environments and successfully identifies performance gradients across different hearing impairment severities. Front-back confusion rates were significantly reduced to levels comparable with real-world medical setups. By reducing costs to a single VR headset, our system enables SSL testing expansion from specialized clinics to primary care and community-based screening scenarios, particularly suitable for VR-naive elderly populations and resource-limited areas.
KW - Adaptive Interaction
KW - Clinical Applications
KW - HRTF
KW - Sound Source Localization
KW - Spatial Audio
KW - Virtual Reality
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105042289403
U2 - 10.1145/3810189
DO - 10.1145/3810189
M3 - 文章
AN - SCOPUS:105042289403
SN - 2474-9567
VL - 10
JO - Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies
JF - Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies
IS - 2
M1 - 71
ER -