Efficient range extrapolation of head-related impulse responses by wave field synthesis techniques

Head-related impulse responses (HRIRs), which are measured from an acoustic source to the left and right ear, characterize the acoustic properties of the outer ear. Due to the involved measurement effort, HRIRs are typically available only for source positions on a circle or surface of a sphere. Range extrapolation techniques aim at calculating HRIRs with a different source distance. A number of techniques have been proposed in the past which are based on expansions of HRIRs in terms of surface spherical harmonics. This paper presents an alternative approach which bases on the interpretation of a BRIR dataset as virtual loudspeaker array which is driven by Wave Field Synthesis in order to achieve range extrapolation.