Real-time binaural rendering with virtual vector base amplitude panning

We present a virtual vector base amplitude panning (VBAP) implementation for 3D head-tracked binaural rendering on an embedded Linux system. Three degrees of freedom head-tracking is implemented within acceptable levels of latency and at 1 degrees angular resolution. The technical performance of virtual VBAP is evaluated alongside a First Order Ambisonics (FOA) approach on the same platform, using analysis of localisation cue error against a human-measured head-related transfer function set. Our findings illustrate that, in scenarios utilising embedded or other portable, low-resource computing platforms, the nature and requirements of the immersive or interactive audio application at hand may determine whether virtual VBAP is a viable (or even preferable) approach compared to virtual FOA.