---
title: "Localizing nearby sound sources in a classroom: Binaural room impulse responses"
authors: ["Barbara G. Shinn-Cunningham", "Norbert Kopco", "Tara J. Martin"]
year: 2005
venue: "The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America"
arxiv: null
doi: "10.1121/1.1872572"
source: "https://doi.org/10.1121/1.1872572"
topics: [binaural, measurement, itd-ild, brir]
seed_rank: 1722
seed_batch: "audio-harvest-2026-09-09"
reviewed: "2026-09-09"
pool: "realtime"
relevance_score: 9
lineage: hrtf-spatial-audio
cites:
  - title: "Auditory localization of nearby sources. Head-related transfer functions"
    url: "https://doi.org/10.1121/1.427180"
    year: 1999
    arxiv: null
    doi: "10.1121/1.427180"
  - title: "HRTF measurements of a KEMAR"
    url: "https://doi.org/10.1121/1.412407"
    year: 1995
    arxiv: null
    doi: "10.1121/1.412407"
see:
  - "1699-auditory-localization-of-nearby-sources-head-related-transfer-functions"
  - "1675-hrtf-measurements-of-a-kemar"
---

# Localizing nearby sound sources in a classroom: Binaural room impulse responses

## One-sentence takeaway

Classroom BRIRs: nearby sources in a *real room* — Shinn-Cunningham/Kopčo/Martin 2005, where HRTF and reverberation fight.

## Why it matters here

Anechoic HRTF is not what GRID COMMAND interiors do. This JASA paper measures binaural room IRs for nearby talkers in a classroom — distance, precedence, and ILD in reverberation. Anoptic: BRIR or GA+HRTF, not dry KEMAR, when the player is in a hangar.

## Key ideas

- **BRIR, not dry HRTF.** Room + head.
- **Nearby sources in rooms.** Complements Brungart anechoic near-field.
- **JASA 2005.** ~167 cites; harvest ITD-ILD / BRIR.
- **Measured.** One room, not a simulator bake-off (that's BRAS 2019).

## Caveats

One classroom. Not a public SADIE-scale BRIR lib. Doesn't give you a renderer. Don't confuse with Wendt 2014 simulated BRIR (1760).

## Links

- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1121/1.1872572