Boundary Absorption Approximation in the Spatial High-Frequency Extrapolation Method for Parametric Room Impulse Response Synthesis

The Spatial High-frequency Extrapolation Method (SHEM) extrapolates low-frequency band-limited spatial room impulse responses (SRIRs) to higher frequencies based on a frame-by-frame time/frequency analysis that determines directional reflected components within the SRIR. Such extrapolation can be used to extend finite- difference time domain (FDTD) wave propagation simulations, limited to only relatively low frequencies, to the full audio band. For this bandwidth extrapolation, a boundary absorption weighting function is proposed based on a parametric approximation of the energy decay relief of the SRIR used as the input to the algorithm. Results using examples of both measured and FDTD simulated impulse responses demonstrate that this approach can be applied successfully to a range of acoustic spaces. Objective measures show a close approximation to reverberation time, and acceptable early decay time values. Results are verified through accompanying auralizations that demonstrate the plausibility of this approach when compared to the original reference case.