Real-time underwater spatial audio: a feasibility study

In recent years, spatial audio utilising compact microphone arrays has seen many advancements due to emerging virtual reality hardware and computational advances. These advances can be observed in three main areas of spatial audio, namely: spatial filtering, direction of arrival estimation and sound reproduction over loudspeakers or headphones. The advantage of compact microphone arrays is their portability, which permits their use in everyday consumer applications. However, an area that has received minimal attention is the field of underwater spatial audio, using compact hydrophone arrays. Although the principles are largely the same, microphone array technologies have rarely been applied to underwater acoustic arrays. In this feasibility study we present a purpose built compact hydrophone array, which can be transported by a single diver. This study demonstrates a real-time underwater acoustic camera for underwater sound-field visualisation and a parametric binaural rendering engine for auralisation.