Synthesis of a sound field scattered by a virtual object using near-field compensated higher-order Ambisonics

For a physically accurate reproduction of a complex virtual sound field, the interaction of sound waves with objects or boundaries have to be taken into account. In this paper, we attempt to synthesize a sound field scattered by an acoustic obstacle. Based on an analytic representation of the incident and scattered sound fields, the loudspeaker driving functions are derived. We explicitly pay attention to the sound obstruction effect behind the scatterer, which is caused by the destructive interference of the incident sound field and the forward scattering. The physical properties of the presented approach are examined through numerical simulations, and the perceptual aspects are discussed in an informal listening test.