Mr. Anthony Tew BSc, CEng, MIET, MIEEE, AMAES, MIPEM
Senior Lecturer
Email: ait1@ohm.york.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1904 32 2358
Fax: +44 (0)1904 32 2335
Biography
Tony spent the first 11 years of his career working in industry. During this period he held research and development posts in the telecommunications sector, where he designed components of the public switched telephone network. For six years he was chief electronics designer in a small company manufacturing assistive technology for people with severe disabilities. From there he moved to the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford where, as part of the Engineering Department at the University, he became a design engineer within a multidisciplinary research team whose activities included gait analysis, orthotic device development and compliance monitoring and fracture healing measurement. He also designed assistive technology to provide independent mobility for people with very limited voluntary movements.
Tony’s interest in binaural signal processing research began with his move to York, where he has also developed a love of teaching at all levels. His experience in communications and assistive device technologies first led him to investigate algorithms for hearing aids using binaural cues and this has developed into a co-ordinated programme of binaural research thanks to contributions over the years from many excellent students and colleagues. He has extensively investigated the measurement and use of head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) for the individualisation of binaural spatial audio signals, such as techniques for their interpolation and their rapid measurement from head shape. The work on HRTF synthesis from morphological measure continues in the form of an international collaboration with the University of Sydney. Some fascinating perceptual aspects of spatial audio are being explored in a project jointly funded by the University and a collaborating industrial partner in which we are investigating auditory and other influences on the realism of binaural audio.
Research interests
Binaural audio signal processing, binaural psychoacoustics, acoustic modelling, applied spatial hearing, perceptual listening tests, binaurally-informed digital hearing aids.
Professional activities
These mainly revolve around my interests in learning and teaching. For example, I am a member of the University Forum for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching, University Teaching Committee, the University Public Lectures Committee, the Science and Society working group, and Chair of the University Learning and Teaching Projects Committee.
Current Project Areas
- Non-acoustical methods for estimating head-related impulse responses rapidly from head and ear shape;
- Understanding how spatial information is impressed on sounds reaching the eardrum;
- Factors affecting the realism of binaural audio;
- Transformation of binaural signals using psychoacoustically-informed signal processing.
Publications
- , An initial validation of individualised crosstalk cancellation filters for binaural perceptual experiments, 125th Convention of the Audio Engineering Society, San Francisco, October, 2008
- , Headphone transparification: A novel method for investigating the externalisation of binaural sounds, 123rd Convention of the Audio Engineering Society, New York, October, 2007
- , Binaural transformation coding with simulated head tracking, 4th Joint Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the Acoustical Society of Japan, in J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 3214, Honolulu, Hawaii, November, 2006
- , Novel method for the efficient individualization of binaural audio signals, 4th Joint Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the Acoustical Society of Japan, in J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 3214, Honolulu, Hawaii, November, 2006
- , A study on head-shape simplification using spherical harmonics for HRTF computation at low frequencies, Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 51(9):799-805, September, 2003
- , The differential pressure synthesis method for efficient acoustic pressure estimation, Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 51(10):647-656, July/August, 2003
- , Three-dimensional elliptic Fourier methods for the parameterization of human pinna shape, IEEE Int. Conf. Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP 2003), Hong Kong,
0-7803-7664-1, April, 2003 - , The significance of spectral overlap in multiple-source localisation, AES 114th Convention, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, March, 2003
- , A novel method for the efficient comparison of spatialisation conditions, AES 114th Convention, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, March, 2003
- , Parameterizing human pinna shape for the estimation of head-related transfer functions, AES 114th Convention, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, March, 2003
- , The continuity illusion revisited: Application to coding of multiple concurrent sound sources, Proc. 1st IEEE Benelux Workshop on Model-Based Processing and Coding of Audio, Leuven, Belgium, November, 2002
- , 3D Audio in the 21st Century, 8th International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs, University of Linz, Austria, July, 2002
- , Interaural time difference estimation using the differential pressure synthesis method, AES 22nd International Conference, 99-105, Espoo, Finland, June, 2002
- , The differential pressure synthesis method for estimating acoustic pressures on human heads, Audio Engineering Society 112th Convention, Munich, Germany, May, 2002
- , The Differential Pressure Synthesis Method for Estimating Acoustic Pressures on Human Heads, 112th Convention of the Audio Engineering Society, May, 2002
- , The continuity illusion in virtual auditory space, AES 112th Convention, Munich, Germany, May, 2002
- , 3D Audio in the 21st Century -Computers Helping People with Special Needs
8th International Conference, ICCHP 2002, Linz, Austria, July 2002 Proceedings, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York,
3-540-43904-8, 2002 - , Perceived performance of loudspeaker spatialised speech for teleconferencing, Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 48(9):771 - 785, 2000
- , Relative spatial performance of ambisonic and transaural speech, 104th Convention of the Audio Engineering Society, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, May, 1998
- , Analyzing head-related transfer function measurements using surface spherical harmonics, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 104(4):J2400-2411, 1998
- , Spherical harmonic spectra of head-related transfer functions., 103rd Convention of the Audio Engineering Society, New York, USA, September, 1997
- , The perceived performance of spatialized speech using a spherical harmonic model of head-related transfer functions., 102nd Convention of the Audio Engineering Society, Munich, Germany, March, 1997
- , Simulation results for an innovative point-of-regard sensor using neural networks, Neural Computing and Applications, 5:230-237, 1997
- , Spatial audio teleconferencing - which way is better?, Proceedings ICAD: The Fourth International Conference on Auditory Display, 29-38, Palo Alto, USA, 1997
- , A spherical harmonic analysis of head-related transfer function measurements, Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics, Reproduced Sound 12, 191-200, 1996