Littérature scientifique sur le sujet « Audio immersivo »

There has been an increase in the use of immersive or spatialized audio formats for radio and podcast journalism. Immersion is used to put audiences at the heart of a story, enable richer experiences and encourage empathy with others, but it can disrupt the ‘grammar’ of broadcast formats and the codes that structure the relationship between audience, journalist and story. Immersive journalism research has not tackled the impact on audio-only storytelling, and the lack of research by and for audio journalists means programme-makers have until now lacked a conceptual framework and terminology to describe how space is constructed in immersive audio, the creative and editorial choices available and their effects. This article, based on analysis of immersive output and interviews with those who produce it, critically examines the differences between mono/stereo space and immersive audio space and argues they are not only a matter of aesthetics or comfort, but communicate differential authority over the story and merit further attention when journalists are trained in immersive audio.

We introduce and describe a new conceptual framework for the design and analysis of audio for immersive first-person shooter games, and discuss its potential implications for the development of the audio component of game engines. The framework was created in order to illustrate and acknowledge the direct role of in-game audio in shaping player-player interactions and in creating a sense of immersion in the game world. Furthermore, it is argued that the relationship between player and sound is best conceptualized theoretically as an acoustic ecology. Current game engines are capable of game world spatiality through acoustic shading, but the ideas presented here provide a framework to explore other immersive possibilities for game audio through real-time synthesis.

Augmented Reality Audio Games (ARAG) enrich the physical world with virtual sounds to express their content and mechanics. Existing ARAG implementations have focused on exploring the surroundings and navigating to virtual sound sources as the main mode of interaction. This paper suggests that gestural activity with a handheld device can realize complex modes of sonic interaction in the augmented environment, resulting in an enhanced immersive game experience. The ARAG “Audio Legends” was designed and tested to evaluate the usability and immersion of a system featuring an exploration phase based on auditory navigation, as well as an action phase, in which players aim at virtual sonic targets and wave the device to hit them or hold the device to block them. The results of the experiment provide evidence that players are easily accustomed to auditory navigation and that gestural sonic interaction is perceived as difficult, yet this does not affect negatively the system’s usability and players’ immersion. Findings also include indications that elements, such as sound design, the synchronization of sound and gesture, the fidelity of audio augmentation, and environmental conditions, also affect significantly the game experience, whereas background factors, such as age, sex, and game or music experience, do not have any critical impact.

Virtual reality and 360° video are some of the latest technological developments within the media and communications industry. These technologies, which are designed to facilitate viewer immersion, are currently being used to create fictional and non-fictional content, thus giving rise to a new audio-visual narrative. On the basis of these premises, this research article analyses how immersive narratives are applied to the social documentary genre in its social dimension. To this end, qualitative content analysis was performed on a sample of 49 immersive documentaries published on the WITHIN platform. This analysis, which was completed with quantitative data, allowed us to confirm that these technologies have enabled the development of immersive narratives, which has given birth to a new type of documentary – the ‘immersive social documentary’.

In the age of participatory and convergence paradigms, video game music has its own networked culture with cybercommunities that discuss, share, and create content, thus opening up a creative space for artistic activities in a constant digital flow. Music composition and production is one of these activities, with files made available on several platforms such as SoundCloud and YouTube, specifically in the format of modification files (or mods). Building on research for a master’s dissertation, this article examines a new model of online artistic production in the form of the circulation of musical mods that were composed and shared on the Nexus Mods platform for the The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim video games. These mods add new musical material that is similar to the existing soundtrack of both titles, but the majority of the files in this platform’s audio category are related only to sounds, not to musical composition. By using titles such as “better sounds” or “immersive sounds” to describe their additions, many modders aim to give other gamers a more immersive experience in the game(s). In this case, immersive relates not only to the musical style and sound quality of the aural effects but also a plausible construction of the reality in which the gamers live, play, and negotiate meaning relating to their own social context. Intersecting “playbour,” fandom, aural immersion, and audiovisual literacy, these audio modders work on adding new layers to the soundscapes and environments of the virtual worlds presented in the two games. The modders regard immersion as a key aspect of design and playability, and they contribute audio material to enable their social capital and visibility on online platforms.

Sound design with the goal of immersion is not new. However, sound design for immersive media experiences (IMEs) utilizing spatial audio can still be considered a relatively new area of practice with less well-defined methods requiring a new and still emerging set of skills and tools. There is, at present, a lack of formal literature around the challenges introduced by this relatively new content form and the tools used to create it, and how these may differ from audio production for traditional media. This article, through the use of semi-structured interviews and an online questionnaire, looks to explore what audio practitioners view as defining features of IMEs, the challenges in creating audio content for IMEs and how current practices for traditional stereo productions are being adapted for use within 360 interactive soundfields. It also highlights potential direction for future research and technological development and the importance of practitioner involvement in research and development in ensuring future tools and technologies satisfy the current needs.

L’audiodescripció (AD) ja no és considerada un servei exclusiu d’accessibilitat, dedicat a una petita fracció d’individus, sinó que s’entén com un servei inclusiu, dirigit no només a les persones amb discapacitats sensorials, sinó també a altres audiències, com els ancians o els nens. És probable que la demanda d’aquest servei creixi en un futur pròxim. Encara que en el mercat s’observa un interès en augmentar cada cop més la oferta de productes audiovisuals accessibles, no s’hauria de deixar de banda la qualitat de l’experiència de l’usuari. Emmarcada dins el model inclusiu d’accessibilitat, aquesta tesi doctoral té com a objectiu explorar l’impacte de l’AD en la resposta emocional del seu públic objectiu – usuaris cecs i amb baixa visió (CiBV). Per a això, es van realitzar dos estudis de recerca, un centrat en l’estil de AD i l’altre en el el tipus de veu d’AD. La justificació darrere de la selecció d’aquests paràmetres es va relacionar amb els resultats de la investigació anterior. Es van establir dos objectius principals d’investigació. El primer, en relació amb l’estil d’AD, es va centrar en l’estudi de la recepció de dos estils d’AD – estàndard i creatiu – per als usuaris CiBV. El segon, vinculat al tipus de veu d’AD, va implicar l’estudi de la recepció de dos tipus de veu d’AD – humana i sintètica – per a usuaris CiBV per a dos gèneres: ficció i documental. L’aspecte innovador d’aquesta tesi doctoral és l’enfocament metodològic adoptat. La tesi segueix una metodologia centrada en l’usuari, però no es limita a informar sobre les opinions dels usuaris, sinó que pretén mesurar la seva resposta emocional als estímuls presentats. L’eina d’investigació que s’utilitza per mesurar l’experiència de l’usuari és el qüestionari “Independent Television Commission Sense of Presence Inventory”, un dels cinc qüestionaris canònics utilitzats per mesurar la presència. Dos elements addicionals – interès i confusió – s’afegeixen perquè els usuaris expressin la seva resposta emocional als estímuls mostrats. Els resultats indiquen que no només els guions d’AD, creatius o estàndard, sinó també els tipus de veu d’AD tenen un efecte directe en la recepció de la pel·lícula i, per tant, en l’experiència dels usuaris. Quan es tracta de l’estil d’AD, els resultats mostren que l’AD creativa, en comparació amb l’AD estàndard, va produir nivells més alts de presència en tots els participants. En general, l’estil creatiu semblava ser més natural, especialment per als participants amb pèrdua de visió recent. No obstant això, va resultar ser més confús que l’estil estàndard, possiblement perquè els participants no estaven acostumats a la terminologia cinematogràfica inclosa en el guió o no esperaven escoltar vocabulari col·loquial. Tot i això, quan es va preguntar explícitament quin estil d’AD – creatiu o estàndard – prefereien, la majoria dels participants va optar per l’AD creativa. Quan es tracta del tipus de veu d’AD, l’AD amb veu humana, en comparació amb l’AD amb veu sintètica (TTS AD1), va provocar nivells significativament més alts de presència per la ficció. Els nivells de presència per al documental van ser similars, sense diferències estadísticament significatives, en relació amb el tipus de veu d’AD. La ficció amb AD narrada per una veu humana va ser avaluada pels participants com a més interessant i menys confusa en comparació amb la ficció narrada per una veu sintètica. En el cas del documental, els nivells d’interès i confusió eren comparables per a les dues veus. Quan se’ls va preguntar quina veu preferien per a un gènere donat, els usuaris van mostrar preferència per l’AD narrada per una persona per a la ficció i cap preferència entre l’AD amb veu humana i AD amb veu sintètica per al documental. En general, les troballes suggereixen que quan es narra adequadament, tant en termes d’estil com de veu, l’AD pot facilitar que les audiències CyBV tinguin una experiència audiovisual més atractiva. S’espera que aquesta tesi doctoral sigui un primer un pas útil per entendre els vincles entre el producte d’AD i el context de l’usuari, i per a poder dur a terme investigacions més profundes en el futur.
La audiodescripción (AD) ya no está considerada como un servicio exclusivo de accesibilidad, dedicado a una pequeña fracción de individuos, sino como un servicio inclusivo, dirigido no sólo a personas con discapacidades sensoriales, sino también a otras audiencias, como los ancianos o los niños. Es probable que la demanda de este servicio crezca en un futuro cercano. Aunque en el mercado se observa un interés en aumentar cada vez más la oferta de productos audiovisuales accesibles, no se debería dejar de lado la calidad de la experiencia del usuario. Enmarcada dentro del modelo inclusivo de accesibilidad, esta tesis doctoral tiene como objetivo explorar el impacto de la AD en la respuesta emocional de su público objetivo – usuarios ciegos y con baja visión (CyBV). Para ello, se realizaron dos estudios de investigación, uno centrado en el estilo de AD y el otro en la entrega vocal de AD. La justificación detrás de la selección de estos parámetros se relacionó con los resultados de investigación anterior. Se establecieron dos objetivos principales de investigación. La primera, en relación con el estilo de AD, se centró en estudiar la recepción de dos estilos de AD – estándar y creativo – por los usuarios CyBV. La segunda, vinculada a la entrega vocal de AD, implicó el estudio de recepción de dos tipos de voces de AD – humana y sintética – por usuarios CyBV para dos géneros: ficción y documental. El aspecto novedoso de esta tesis doctoral es el enfoque metodológico adoptado. La tesis sigue una metodología centrada en el usuario, pero no se limita a informar sobre las opiniones de los usuarios, sino que pretende medir su respuesta emocional a los estímulos presentados. La herramienta de investigación que se utiliza para medir la experiencia del usuario es el cuestionario de la Independent Television Commission Sense of Presence Inventory, que es uno de los cinco cuestionarios canónicos utilizados para medir la presencia. Dos elementos adicionales – interés y confusión – se añaden para que los usuarios expresen su respuesta emocional a los estímulos presentados. Los resultados indican que no solo los guiones de AD, creativos o estándar, sino también las voces de entrega de AD tienen un efecto directo en la recepción de la película y, por lo tanto, en la experiencia de los usuarios. Cuando se trata del estilo de la AD, los resultados muestran que la AD creativa, en comparación con la AD estándar, produjo mayores niveles de presencia para todos los participantes. En general, el estilo creativo parecía más natural, especialmente a los participantes con pérdida de visión reciente. Sin embargo, resultó ser más confuso que el estilo estándar, posiblemente porque los participantes no estaban acostumbrados a la terminología cinematográfica incluida en el guión o no esperaban escuchar vocabulario coloquial. A pesar de eso, cuando se preguntó explícitamente qué estilo de AD – creativo o estándar – preferían, la mayoría de los participantes optó por la AD creativa. En cuanto al tipo de voz de AD, la AD narrada por una persona, en comparación con la AD narrada por una voz sintética (TTS AD1), provocó niveles significativamente más altos de presencia para la ficción. Los niveles de presencia para el documental fueron similares, sin diferencias estadísticamente significativas en relación con el tipo de voz de la AD. La ficción con AD narrada por una voz humana fue evaluada por los participantes como más interesante y menos confusa en comparación con la AD para ficción narrada mediante síntesis de voz. En el caso del documental, los niveles de interés y confusión eran similares para ambas voces. Cuando se les preguntó qué voz prefierían para un género dado, los usuarios mostraron una preferencia por la AD narrada por una persona para la ficción y ninguna preferencia entre la AD con voz humana y AD con voz sintética para el documental. En general, los resultados sugieren que cuando se narra adecuadamente, tanto en términos de estilo como de voz, la AD puede aumentar las posibilidades de que las audiencias CyBV tengan una experiencia audiovisual más atractiva. Se espera que esta tesis doctoral sea un primer paso para entender los vínculos entre el producto de la AD y el contexto del usuario, y abrir el camino a investigaciones más profundas en el futuro.
Audio description (AD) is no longer seen as an exclusive accessibility service dedicated to a small fraction of individuals, but as an inclusive service, addressing not only the needs of people with sensory impairments, but also those of other audiences, including the elderly or children. The demand for this service is likely to grow in the near future. Although a drive for quantity of accessible audiovisual products can be observed on the market, the issue of the quality of user experience should not be overlooked. Framed within the inclusive model of accessibility, this PhD thesis aims to explore the impact of AD on the emotional response of its target audiences – blind and visually impaired (B/VIP) users. To this end, two research studies were carried out: one focusing on AD style and the other on AD vocal delivery. The rationale behind selecting these parameters was related to the findings of previous research conducted in the field. Two main research objectives were set. The first one, concerning AD style, centred around studying the reception of two AD styles – standard and creative – by B/VIP users. The second one, linked to AD vocal delivery, involved studying the reception of two AD voice types – human and synthetic – by B/VIP users for two genres: fiction and documentary. The novel aspect of this PhD thesis is the methodological approach adopted. It follows a user-centric methodology, not limiting itself to reporting on users’ opinions, but also aiming to measure their emotional response to a stimuli presented. The research tool that is used to gauge user experience is the Independent Television Commission Sense of Presence Inventory questionnaire, one of five canonical questionnaires used for measuring presence. Two additional items – interest and confusion – are added for users to report their emotional response to the stimuli shown. The results indicate that not only AD scripts – creative or standard – but also AD delivery voices have a direct effect on the reception of a film, and therefore on users’ experience. When it comes to AD style, the results show that creative AD, compared to standard AD, yielded higher levels of presence for all participants. Overall, the creative AD style seemed more natural, especially to participants with recent sight loss. However, it turned out to be more confusing than standard AD, possibly because the participants were not used to cinematic terminology included in the script or did not expect to hear unsavoury vocabulary. Nevertheless, when explicitly asked which AD style – creative or standard – they prefer, the majority of participants opted for creative AD. When it comes to AD vocal delivery, AD narrated by a human, compared to text-to-speech (TTS) AD, prompted significantly higher levels of presence for fiction. Presence rates for documentary were similar, with no statistically significant differences in relation to AD voice type. Fiction with a human voice AD was assessed by participants as being more interesting and less confusing than fiction with TTS AD. In the case of documentary, the levels of interest and confusion were comparable for both voice types. When asked which voice type they prefer for a given genre, participants showed a preference for AD read by a human for fiction, but no preference between a human voice AD and TTS AD for documentary. Overall, the findings suggest that when properly delivered, both in terms of style and voice, AD may increase the chances of B/VIP audiences having a more engaging viewing experience. It is hoped that this PhD thesis will act as a useful stepping stone towards understanding the links between the AD product and user context, and towards conducting further research in this field.

The development and improvement of 3-D immersive audio is gaining momentum through the growing interest in virtual reality. Possible applications reach from recreating real world environments to immersive concerts and performances to exploiting big data acoustically. To improve the immersive experience several measures can be taken. The recording of the sound field, the spatialization and the development of the loudspeaker arrays are some of the greatest challenges. In this thesis, these challenges for improving immersive audio will be explored. First, there will be a short introduction about 3D audio and a review about the state of the art technology and research. Next, the thesis will provide an introduction to 3D loudspeaker arrays and describe the systems used during this research. Furthermore, the development of a new 16-element 3rd order sound field microphone will be described. Afterwards, different spatial audio algorithms such as higher order ambisonics, wave field synthesis and vector based amplitude panning will be described, analyzed and compared. For each spatialization algorithm, the quality of soundfield reproduction will be quantified using listener perception tests for clarity and sound source localization.
Master of Science

In immersive audio environments with distributed microphones, Independent Component Analysis (ICA) can be applied to uncover signals from a mixture of other signals and noise, such as in a cocktail party recording. ICA algorithms have been developed for instantaneous source mixtures and convolutional source mixtures. While ICA for instantaneous mixtures works when no delays exist between the signals in each mixture, distributed microphone recordings typically result various delays of the signals over the recorded channels. The convolutive ICA algorithm should account for delays; however, it requires many parameters to be set and often has stability issues. This thesis introduces the Channel Aligned FastICA (CAICA), which requires knowledge of the source distance to each microphone, but does not require knowledge of noise sources. Furthermore, the CAICA is combined with Time Frequency Masking (TFM), yielding even better SOI extraction even in low SNR environments. Simulations were conducted for ranking experiments tested the performance of three algorithms: Weighted Beamforming (WB), CAICA, CAICA with TFM. The Closest Microphone (CM) recording is used as a reference for all three. Statistical analyses on the results demonstrated superior performance for the CAICA with TFM. The algorithms were applied to experimental recordings to support the conclusions of the simulations. These techniques can be deployed in mobile platforms, used in surveillance for capturing human speech and potentially adapted to biomedical fields.

The complex relationship between array gain patterns and microphone distributions limits the application of traditional optimization algorithms on irregular arrays, which show enhanced beamforming performance for human speech capture in immersive environments. This work analyzes the relationship between irregular microphone geometries and spatial filtering performance with statistical methods. Novel geometry descriptors are developed to capture the properties of irregular microphone distributions showing their impact on array performance. General guidelines and optimization methods for regular and irregular array design are proposed in immersive (near-field) environments to obtain superior beamforming ability for speech applications. Optimization times are greatly reduced through the objective function rules using performance-based geometric descriptions of microphone distributions that circumvent direct array gain computations over the space of interest. In addition, probabilistic descriptions of acoustic scenes are introduced to incorporate various levels of prior knowledge for the source distribution. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed optimization methods, simulated gain patterns and real SNR results of the optimized arrays are compared to corresponding traditional regular arrays and arrays obtained from direct exhaustive searching methods. Results show large SNR enhancements for the optimized arrays over arbitrary randomly generated arrays and regular arrays, especially at low microphone densities. The rapid convergence and acceptable processing times observed during the experiments establish the feasibility of proposed optimization methods for array geometry design in immersive environments where rapid deployment is required with limited knowledge of the acoustic scene, such as in mobile platforms and audio surveillance applications.

The Generalized Sidelobe Canceller is an adaptive algorithm for optimally estimating the parameters for beamforming, the signal processing technique of combining data from an array of sensors to improve SNR at a point in space. This work focuses on the algorithm’s application to widely-separated microphone arrays with irregular distributions used for human voice capture. Methods are presented for improving the performance of the algorithm’s blocking matrix, a stage that creates a noise reference for elimination, by proposing a stochastic model for amplitude correction and enhanced use of cross correlation for phase correction and time-difference of arrival estimation via a correlation coefficient threshold. This correlation technique is also applied to a multilateration algorithm for an efficient method of explicit target tracking. In addition, the underlying microphone array geometry is studied with parameters and guidelines for evaluation proposed. Finally, an analysis of the stability of the system is performed with respect to its adaptation parameters.

La tesi si propone di studiare la percezione del senso di immersività nella musica in formato binaurale, con l’obiettivo di migliorare l’esperienza d’ascolto e metterla a confronto con la musica ascoltata in formato stereofonico. Attraverso un’analisi delle basi della fisica del suono e della psicoacustica, il saggio vuole illustrare quali sono le tecnologie che permettono alla musica immersiva di essere prodotta. A tal proposito verranno presi in esame sia la storia delle tecniche di riproduzione sonora, che gli strumenti attualmente disponibili, per permettere alla comunità scientifica di avere un quadro completo sulle risorse odierne. Il binomio tra musica e spatial audio è in continua crescita con il passare del tempo, per questo il testo si propone anche di evidenziare quali sono i principali problemi di ricerca e gli standard necessari sui quali concentrare eventuali prossimi lavori. Il saggio si conclude con un esperimento che mette a confronto due differenti tipologie di mix di una canzone: una versione stereofonica e una versione in formato binaurale, processata tramite la Digital Audio Workstation Logic Pro X e la Dolby Atmos Production Suite. I risultati porteranno delle evidenze interessanti a favore della versione in formato binaurale e diverse suggestioni sugli sviluppi futuri.
The thesis aims to study the perception of the sense of immersion in music in binaural format, with the target of improving the listening experience and comparing it with the music listened to in stereophonic format. Through an analysis of the basics of the physics of sound and psychoacoustics, the essay wants to illustrate which technologies allow immersive music to be produced. In this regard, both the history of sound reproduction techniques and the tools currently available will be examined to allow the scientific community to have a complete picture of today's resources. The combination of music and spatial audio is constantly growing with the passage of the years, which is why the text also aims to highlight the main research problems and the necessary standards on which to focus any future works. The essay ends with an experiment that compares two different types of song mixes: a stereo version and a binaural format version, processed through the Digital Audio Workstation Logic Pro X and the Dolby Atmos Production Suite. The results will bring interesting evidence in favor of the binaural format version and various suggestions on future developments.

As virtual reality technologies emerge, the ability to create immersive experiences visually drastically improved [1]. However, in order to accompany the visual immersion, audio must also become more immersive [2]. This is where 3D audio comes in. 3D audio allows for the simulation of sounds from specific directions, allowing a more realistic feeling [3]. At the present moment, there lacks sufficient tools for users to design immersive audio experiences that fully exploit the abilities of 3D audio. This paper proposes and implements the following systems [4]: 1. Automatic separation of stems from the incoming audio file, or letting the user upload the stems themselves 2. A simulated environment in which the separated stems will be automatically placed in 3. A user interface in order to manipulate the simulated positions of the separated stems. We applied our application to a few selected audio files in order to conduct a qualitative evaluation of our approach. The results show that our approach was able to successfully separate the stems and simulate a dimensional sound effect.

With the introduction of immersive audio formats like MPEG-H and Dolby AC-4, TV terminals may allow end users to configure their experience by changing values of audio parameters directly or indirectly (audio profiles) via some kind of configuration user interface. In order to support more dynamic user interfaces for this kind of interactive audio setup, DTV apps should be able to manipulate such parameters as well. This contribution proposes the addition of immersive audio properties to media elements in NCL applications.

This work, situated at Rensselaer’s Collaborative-Research Augmented Immersive Virtual Environment Laboratory (CRAIVE-Lab), uses panoramic image datasets for spatial audio display. A system is developed for the room-centered immersive virtual reality facility to analyze panoramic images on a segment-by-segment basis, using pre-trained neural network models for semantic segmentation and object detection, thereby generating audio objects with respective spatial locations. These audio objects are then mapped with a series of synthetic and recorded audio datasets and populated within a spatial audio environment as virtual sound sources. The resulting audiovisual outcomes are then displayed using the facility’s human-scale panoramic display, as well as the 128-channel loudspeaker array for wave field synthesis (WFS). Performance evaluation indicates effectiveness for real-time enhancements, with potentials for large-scale expansion and rapid deployment in dynamic immersive virtual environments.

Virtual reality applications are on the rise and touching numerous domains, including healthcare, training, and gaming, to name a few. Existing experiences, however, are not fully immersive, as only two senses (audio-visual) are stimulated. To overcome this limitation, olfactory and haptic devices are emerging, thus making multisensory immersive experiences a reality. To date, however, little is known about the impact that each stimulated sense has on the overall experience, as well as on the user’s sense of e.g., realism, immersion, and engagement. In this pilot, we aim to answer this question. Using a multisensory pod, sixteen participants were immersed in a 2.5-minute virtual world, where smells, vibroacoustic, and somatosensory stimuli (i.e., wind and heat) were presented, in addition to 360-degree video and surround sound. Using two wearable devices, we kept track of the user’s heart rate, breathing rate, skin temperature, blood volume pulse, and electrodermal activity while they were immersed. In this paper, we report the impact that stimulating different senses had on the users’ overall experience, sense of presence, immersion, realism, flow, cybersickness, and emotional states, both subjectively, as well as objectively using features extracted from the wearable devices.

The Spatial Audio Data Immersive Experience (SADIE) project aims to identify new foundational relationships pertaining to hu-man spatial aural perception, and to validate existing relation-ships. Our infrastructure consists of an intuitive interaction in-terface, an immersive exocentric sonification environment, and a layer-based amplitude-panning algorithm. Here we highlight the system’s unique capabilities and provide findings from an initial externally funded study that focuses on the assessment of human aural spatial perception capacity. When compared to the existing body of literature focusing on egocentric spatial perception, our data show that an immersive exocentric environment enhances spatial perception, and that the physical implementation using high density loudspeaker arrays enables significantly improved spatial perception accuracy relative to the egocentric and virtual binaural approaches. The preliminary observations suggest that human spatial aural perception capacity in real-world-like immersive exocentric environments that allow for head and body movement is significantly greater than in egocentric scenarios where head and body movement is restricted. Therefore, in the design of immersive auditory displays, the use of immersive exocentric environments is advised. Further, our data identify a significant gap between physical and virtual human spatial aural perception accuracy, which suggests that further development of virtual aural immersion may be necessary before such an approach may be seen as a viable alternative.

The article analyzes the peculiarities of the media content shaping and transformation in the convergent dimension of cross-media, taking into account the possibilities of augmented reality. With the help of the principles of objectivity, complexity and reliability in scientific research, a number of general scientific and special methods are used: method of analysis, synthesis, generalization, method of monitoring, observation, problem-thematic, typological and discursive methods. According to the form of information presentation, such types of media content as visual, audio, verbal and combined are defined and characterized. The most important in journalism is verbal content, it is the one that carries the main information load. The dynamic development of converged media leads to the dominance of image and video content; the likelihood of increasing the secondary content of the text increases. Given the market situation, the effective information product is a combined content that combines text with images, spreadsheets with video, animation with infographics, etc. Increasing number of new media are using applications and website platforms to interact with recipients. To proceed, the peculiarities of the new content of new media with the involvement of augmented reality are determined. Examples of successful interactive communication between recipients, the leading news agencies and commercial structures are provided. The conditions for effective use of VR / AR-technologies in the media content of new media, the involvement of viewers in changing stories with augmented reality are determined. The so-called immersive effect with the use of VR / AR-technologies involves complete immersion, immersion of the interested audience in the essence of the event being relayed. This interaction can be achieved through different types of VR video interactivity. One of the most important results of using VR content is the spatio-temporal and emotional immersion of viewers in the plot. The recipient turns from an external observer into an internal one; but his constant participation requires that the user preferences are taken into account. Factors such as satisfaction, positive reinforcement, empathy, and value influence the choice of VR / AR content by viewers.